


Stargate SG-1: Those Who Remain

by Legume_Shadow



Series: Stargate Atlantis Alternate Season 3 [4]
Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Alternate Dimension, Alternate Universe, Canon Parallel, Gen, Post Continuum, SG-1 Are Backseat Drivers, SG-1 Takes A Backseat, Spycraft, Thin Line Between Good and Evil, Tok'ra, Tok'ra-centric, Voices in the Head Shenanigans, grey morality, some h/c
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-30
Updated: 2017-01-22
Packaged: 2018-08-28 00:07:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 97,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8423059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Legume_Shadow/pseuds/Legume_Shadow
Summary: A relative sense of peace has settled over the Tok'ra as they rebuild their society in the ashes of the defeated system lords.  However, peace has not come to Malek and his friends, as they find themselves transported to another dimension and into a conflict that is as old as it is familiar to them.  It is a place that sees old friends and allies enemies, enemies turned into allies, and a war without end for those who remain.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shadow_Chaser](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow_Chaser/gifts).



> First Publishing: Oct 2016, AO3  
> Disclaimer: All characters (except for the ones created by me) belong to their respective owners. No profit is being made from this work of fiction.

**Previously, on Stargate SG-1:**

 

“ _P-Pan...dora's... box,” Aldwin weakly whispered, barely able to form words as he tried to lift an arm towards the humming and faintly glowing box near them._

“ _Pandora's box?” Anise repeated, as Malek turned slightly and plucked the humming box from the floor, bringing it closer to them. “_ _Dr. Jackson said that the Tau'ri mythology speaks of a powerful box that was opened, unleashing chaos upon the world. When the box was finally closed, the only thing left that had not been unleashed was Hope.”_

“ _Egeria...” Aldwin whispered, taking a shuddering breath. “Egeria's last child... a queen... Hecate...”_

_Malek's eyes widened of their own accord as he realized just what was in the box and gingerly pried the top off of the box, allowing a blue-green glow to fill the room. A sound that was a cross between a screech and hiss was heard as he looked inside and saw an enormous symbiote, larger than the usual size of a mature symbiote, swimming about. This was a symbiote queen – Egeria's final gift to the Tok'ra, to her children. This must have been her contingency plan for she must have suspected that one day, she would not be able to continue to pass on her legacy._

_As fast as hope and joy filled him, it was dampened when he saw a shadow below the symbiote queen. As if sensing his confusion, the symbiote queen seemed to curl up a little more and reacting to that, a second symbiote, the size of a normal one, swam up. The second symbiote seemed to try to force the queen symbiote back down so that she was behind it, as if trying to protect the queen._

“ _There are two of them in this box,” he whispered, looking up and over at Anise, who was looking worriedly back at Aldwin before turning towards the box, trying to see the contents of it. “A queen and one other normal, mature one.”_

“ _Sentinel,” the word was barely heard as he saw Aldwin say, but seize up in pain as he tried to cough but couldn't find the strength to. As soon as the fit passed, Malek wanted to stop his friend from explaining any further, wanting him to save his strength for the journey back home, but Aldwin continued, whispering, “Hecate's sentinel. Asteria... Leto's sister...”_

“ _Hope,” Anise murmured, brushing Aldwin's forehead with gentle fingers, though his eyes had fluttered closed with the movement. “You... Leto... gave us hope.”_

“ _Aldwin,” he said, replacing the lid and gently placing the box back down. He grasped his friend's hand, as if he could pour life into him with just that move, and bowed his head slightly, saying, “thank you.”_

_Silence answered them._

~~~~

“No...” Anise softly cried, breaking the deathly silence that seemed to have saturated the room. Her hands flew to Aldwin's neck but Malek could see the despair cloud her eyes – there was no pulse.

Reluctantly, he placed his friend's hand down, knowing that there was no more they could do. Death had claimed what was rightfully hers and now, their dear friend was finally at peace. His gaze strayed over to where the Atanik bracer still remained on Aldwin's arm – it had not even fallen off after death had claimed him.

“The sarcophagus!”

_**What?!**_ his thoughts echoed his host's own as he saw Anise scramble up and tried to pick Aldwin up. It was his host who snapped him out of his fugue by taking control over their body, saying, “Anise, stop. It is not right!”

Both he and his host were rocked back when their friend turned her tear-streaked face towards them, pleading with her expressive eyes that also carried the weight of her host's unspoken plea. “I cannot,” Anise said, her voice quavering, “neither of us cannot do this anymore. We cannot lose another person we care about. _Please_ , Alexei...Malek... please...”

It was because of just how broken Anise sounded that stirred his host's heart, bringing up a well of memories that was not only from his host but also from his own. Even then, he was still reluctant to help, to place the dead body of a dear friend into the sarcophagus that did not look like a normal one. “What...” he began, taking over from his host, “what if he comes back wrong?”

“We can fix this,” she replied, sniffling, “he survived many sessions before. We can help him. The sarcophagus is probably Atanik in design so there must be something that can prevent corruption...I am sure there is.”

“Anise...”

“There are also two symbiotes...we can implant the sentinel into him, and have the symbiote cure him--”

Malek immediately engulfed her in a tight embrace as he felt her shudder and break down, crying. She clung onto him as he heard and felt sobs wrack her small frame. She had mourned Rosha and Jolinar's death in the company of Martouf and Lantash, but now was the same as before when she and her host had lost control upon seeing the body of Martouf and Lantash being bore away all those years ago. Aldwin had been the closest to her to stop her from doing something rash, but had she managed to escape from Aldwin's comforting embrace, Malek was right behind, ready to stop her from going after the body of their friend. Now though, it was only him left, and he could not help but feel a tight, sorrowful knot squeeze not only his own heart, but that of his host.

_**We should try,**_ he heard his host say between their own semi-valiant effort to try to hold back tears. _**Aldwin was in the midst of repairing the sarcophagus, as if he knew this was going to happen and he wanted to live. Please Malek...**_

“I do not want him to come back wrong,” he whispered, though he wasn't sure if it was for his own benefit or for Anise and Freya's.

_**But after all that he has done, he is still a person we hold dearly close to our hearts**_ **,** his host said. _**Had you the same opportunity for Martouf or Rosha would you have taken it? Would you have done the same for Lysana? He rescued us and gave both of us a second chance in life. Isn't it time that we give him a chance?**_

_**Does it have to be like this?** _

There was silence in their shared space, but he knew the answer. Slowly letting go of Anise, he gently took her by the shoulders and gave her a nod. Turning slightly, he picked up Aldwin's body, as Anise rose up, wiping tears away with her hands and pushed the covering of the sarcophagus open. Carefully placing his friend's body into the pit, it immediately lit up upon contact and he stepped back as mechanisms and a near-silent whirl of devices that he could not even begin to fathom about reacted. As the lid of the sarcophagus slowly slid close, he could not help but glance at Aldwin's arm which still carried the bracer – would that affect the sarcophagus' work?

Stepping back he saw faint light emit from the bottom of the sarcophagus, with the panel that Aldwin had stripped and re-arranged the crystal configuration before his death, emitting the most light. He didn't know how long it would take to resurrect their dead friend, and thus he returned his attention to the box that contained the two symbiotes. He was aware that Anise had taken to sitting vigil and watch over the active sarcophagus.

Crouching down on the ground, he pried the cover open and was rewarded with a screechy hiss from the top-most symbiote – Hecate's sentinel. The sentinel, Asteria, had flared out its mandibles, puffing up slightly to look bigger and more threatening. The shadow swimming quite lazily below the sentinel symbiote seemed quite unconcerned, but when he placed a hand out and over the open box, the symbiote suddenly quieted and calmed down.

“ _I am Malek of the Tok'ra_ , Asteria,” he stated in the ancient language of old, as he felt the symbiote rise up out of the stasis goop and prod his host's hand with its beak. “ _I am a child of_ Egeria _, born in her fifth spawn sac on_ Ichterus _about one thousand nine-hundred and nintey-seven years ago_.”

He felt the curious symbiote prod him once more before disappearing into the murk, allowing the young queen to surface. Removing his hand, he peered into the box and saw that the queen had parted her mandibles slightly as if greeting him with a smile. Despite his exhaustion, his worry, and sorrow, he could not help but faintly smile at just how strangely innocent and beautiful Egeria's daughter-queen looked.

“ _Everything will be all right, my queen_ ,” he said. “ _You will be reunited with the rest of your family soon at homeworld_.”

 

~*~*~*~

 

**Chapter 1**

 

Desert wind, dry and hot, carrying grains of sand everywhere, blew gently across his face, surprising him as he gazed out from the balcony alcove high up from the ground. Distant dunes of the wasteland stretched before him, as the clear blue sky with only a hint of clouds graced the world above. The moons that orbited the Tok'ra homeworld were currently thin crescents, but were on a waning path; having risen nearly at the same time hours before It was here, in the quiet of the balconies, where people seldom went, that he stayed for hours at a time. There was no one to bother him – no accusative or pitying looks that were thrown at him, ever so discreetly, but always caught by him as he walked in the halls.

He didn't want their looks; did not want their polite queries of how he was doing today and if he needed any help in the labs; did not want to be stared at by the Council, as if still a fugitive, even though the symbiote he had carried had been dead for over a month now. He just wanted it all to stop, to go back to normal, to the way things were... but it was a futile hope to keep clinging to.

_**You need to stop thinking along this line again, Aldwin.** _

The only barest of hints that he gave away, still not quite used to the new voice in his head, was a slight upward tick of his left eyebrow. Though he and his new symbiote had only been blended for a little over a month, there were changes that he was still not used to. Where there would be at least a hum of an ancient tune, or even just the occasional commentary about their surroundings from his previous symbiote, there was almost nothing except for the occasional awkward mental pat of reassurance.

It had been Malek and Anise who had implanted him with Asteria after he had been resurrected by the Atanik sarcophagus. He had been unconscious then, but had awoken in the healing ward in their homeworld's city. At first, he had thought he had died and gone to the afterlife, but then the presence of his new symbiote had made herself known.

The first thing he noticed about his new symbiote, as Asteria was absorbing all of his memories, was that his symbiote was old. The second thing that he learned was that his symbiote had been the sac-sibling of Leto, but did not have the same in-depth knowledge about crystals as Leto did. Asteria's specialty had been pure combat, whether it was physical or with weapons, which was the reason why she had been chosen to be placed with Egeria's daughter-queen in that stasis cube. She was not used to espionage warfare as they, the Tok'ra, had fought for over two millennium.

Aldwin himself had never been much for combat, especially physical combat, greatly preferring the comfort of his research in a lab or just quietly infiltrating a system lord's stronghold to spy upon. His previous symbiote, Leto had preferred it too, though he was aware that she had undertaken a few combat-oriented missions in other hosts before. It was why he considered himself part of the engineering and research division in the Tok'ra, rather than part of the scouts or sentinels.

The fact that he still preferred the research labs to becoming a scout after blending had been a slight point of contention between him and his symbiote. There was also the fact that he had keenly felt his symbiote's apathetic feelings towards the rest of the Tok'ra and had only heard her comment twice on the mentality of their people. Asteria thought of them as quite pathetic in terms of what they had done to themselves in the past two thousand years.

Aldwin had initially thought of it as contempt for the Tok'ra, but when his symbiote shared a sliver of the memories that she had from a mission she had undertaken to undermine the system lords of old, Aldwin realized that there was some truth to the symbiote's thoughts. However, he was also well aware that had he not been host to Leto and had not undertaken an incredibly destructive path in the last few years, his own mentality would not be as open to acceptance on Asteria's assessment as it was now. The things he and Leto did were out of necessity, and it was because of what Egeria had passed down to her children that the Tok'ra themselves had been on the brink of extinction – compassion. Had Egeria's children acted more like their brethren Goa'uld and forced the war to escalate, then the future would not have been as bleak as it was now.

But to become as ruthless as the very system lords they had sought to eradicate would have betrayed all that Egeria stood for. Leto had done just that, and she was not of genetic brethren of the Tok'ra even though she called herself Tok'ra. Neither was Asteria. Both of his symbiotes had been Goa'uld-turned-Tok'ra; pledged allegiance to Egeria and her descendants so long ago. In a twisted sense, Aldwin could see that Leto and Asteria had been the left and right hands of their queen – able to carry out despicable acts in the name of their queen so that Egeria's children did not have to and could live in a new age of peace. But due to circumstances beyond any of their control, that never happened.

What the Tok'ra were after the eradication of the system lords was what held them true to their queen's wishes; and there was hope: Egeria's daughter-queen. The first generation of the Tok'ra may have been whittled down to near extinction, but Hecate was to be their salvation. At the thought of the young queen, he could feel his symbiote's protective streak bleed into their shared consciousness. He sent a soothing reassurance to his symbiote that they would never let their queen come to harm, no matter what they had to do. Leto had sacrificed herself to ensure the future of the Tok'ra – he would honor her memory by ensuring that future was not wasted or destroyed.

There was no answer from his symbiote, and he did not expect one, for Asteria and Leto were as different as day and night. The disquiet that had filled him when he had first awoken was almost gone as he got used to the fact that his symbiote was just as quiet as he usually was. It was the one thing they had in common and he took some comfort in it; it was a start towards the new life they would share.

He was also still not sure what to make of what his friends had done to him. He had already died three times, with the first being the only blissfully short-lived pain that he had gone through. Resurrection by a modified sarcophagus at the hands of Ba'al was what brought him back and started down the path of utter destruction and deception. The second time was more painful, more prolonged, and it had been by an assassin. Again, time spent in the sarcophagus had brought him back to life. The third, knowing that he had fulfilled his symbiote's dying wish, he had willingly parted life, even though his mind rebelled and had tried to modify the Atanik sarcophagus as much as possible before his strength had been utterly sapped from the Atanik bracer.

After a few more minutes of enjoying the quiet out here, he returned into the hustle and bustle of the city, feeling the nudge of his symbiote guide him towards the area where Hecate's birthing creche was located. Two guards were posted outside of the creche, and both stood at attention, crossing their staff weapons across the threshold to prevent him from entering. Mentally stepping aside, he allowed his symbiote control.

“We wish to see our queen,” Asteria stated in a commanding tone.

“We apologize, but as of two days ago, the Council has voted to not allow any unauthorized people in here. Unfortunately, neither you nor your host are authorized,” one of the guardsmen said.

“What?” Aldwin heard his symbiote exclaim, quite baffled. He too was confused at the order. They had been visiting this area every few days since waking up, and none of the guards on any of the shifts had ever stopped them before. Tok'ra did not bar anyone from anywhere within the city, except for when privacy was requested. What had happened to necessitate this change?

“Please talk to the Council to receive permission to enter,” the guardsman said, though he could hear regret in her tone.

“Luiane, please allow them to enter.”

Aldwin felt Asteria turn their body slightly and saw Malek making his way down the hall towards them. It was he who had said that, and when he stopped before them, Aldwin felt himself turn back towards the guardsmen. Both guardsmen gave Malek inquisitive looks, but Malek said nothing else, until after a few long moments, the staff weapons were removed from the entrance.

Without a glance towards either guardsmen, Aldwin felt himself enter and make their way towards the rather large tank which housed their queen, Hecate. Both he and his symbiote were acutely aware that Malek had also entered, but had stopped right at the entrance, giving both of them a semblance of privacy. He could feel the mental frustration of his symbiote bleed into him and sent an apologetic thought. It was because of him that Asteria was barred from visiting her queen without what seemed like a 'keeper'.

_**Do not blame yourself, Aldwin,**_ his symbiote whispered to him as they stopped in front of the tank which held their queen. _**It is not you who is contributing towards their unease. It is mostly me.**_

_**How so?**_ he questioned as he heard his symbiote murmur a few words in the ancient dialect of old, noticing that their queen, despite being unblended and quite engorged, ready to give birth soon, reacting to the words.

_**I do not have two thousand years of fighting as the others of the Tok'ra. I have ideas about warfare that are unconventional, even though I have never spoken of it; but they know. I knew and served their queen before I was tasked with my duty to protect her daughter. They see me as an outsider, as an intruder. They see me as someone who should have saved Egeria, not be hidden away for the last two thousand years**_ **,** she said, her tone full of resignation and of regret.

It was then that he realized the full extent of just how much his symbiote had been hiding from him. He had been wallowing away in his own guilt and regret, selfishly thinking only of himself and not of his symbiote. They had successfully blended, but it was not a true blending of minds.

_**I... I shouldn't have...**_ he began, but felt the his symbiote gently admonish him in their shared space. Realizing that he had yet again easily fell back into his own misery, he took a step back in their shared space and mentally closed his eyes. Taking a mental deep breath, he tried to still himself as he opened his memories and invited his symbiote to re-blend their memories.

As she did so, he could see that not only was she opening her own thoughts to him once again, but also had divided her attention to the young queen out in the physical world. Just seeing her protective charge gave her some peace that she longed for, and he realized that she, like him, also longed for the isolation that being in a creche such as this gave them. They were both outcasts from the Tok'ra collective, even though there were a few who accepted both of them, even after what had happened. They were allowed to stay, but with how inclusive and tightly close their community was, it shouldn't have taken a month for the acceptance and integration of both host and symbiote into the community.

_**We will never again be 'one' of them, will we, Asteria**_ **?** he quietly asked as he skimmed through more of his symbiote's memories. Horror at just how destructive Asteria, her sister Leto, Egeria, and those under their command fought before the birth of the Tok'ra should have left him nauseous, but it didn't. Instead, he felt a sort of detachment, of a disgusting interest in just how the battles had been fought. _**You, for what they perceive as a misplaced priority in the war, and me, the one who knowingly and willingly killed so many of our people and others.**_

“Asteria, Aldwin,” Malek's rumble from behind interrupted whatever else he was going to say or she was going to answer. They had both felt the light touch of the Tok'ra's hand upon their left elbow. It was a silent signal that had been long established by Aldwin and his previous symbiote to Malek and his previous host as a way to communicate thoughts that could not be said in public. “Because the Council has not approved your presence here in the creche, this is all the time that I can afford to give you. Please speak to the Council if you wish to return here in the future,” Malek continued to say.

It was as public of a dismissal as possible, but the light touch before the speech indicated that Malek had something to discuss with both of them in a more private setting. At his urging, since he knew more of the situation, Asteria reluctantly surrendered control over their body and a moment later, Aldwin followed Malek out. However, for the sake of his symbiote, he took one last look at the chamber before turning back around and leaving.

Asteria was quiet as he followed Malek down the halls, passing by several laboratories, living spaces, and other areas that now encompassed their ever growing city. Most of the Tok'ra were now afforded their own private rooms, save for those who had pledged themselves to each other. However, after centuries of fighting and living in cramped and shared quarters, there were still quite a number of them who preferred to spend a lot of their free time in common areas. Many of them were still not used to the fact that they needed to no longer hide in fear of the system lords. Hopefully, with the new generation of Tok'ra being born soon, those new Tok'ra would never have to face what Egeria's children faced.

As they walked by the Council chambers, he was surprised that they were not entering it. The distrustful stares that he received as he passed by many who had business in and around the chambers were nearly unbearable, but as Malek continued onwards towards an area that he had never been to before, he followed. It did surprise him that the guards who lined the hall to the Council chambers did not stop him the further they traveled into a more quiet, almost silent area.

Security systems, from visible ones to invisible sensors that he was sure was installed, lined the corridors to this area. It was quiet, it felt private, but everything around here was still being recorded. He had a feeling that reflected Asteria's feelings – were they even supposed to be here? Malek wanted to talk in private, but this place was no where near private. However, just as he was about to stop, Malek abruptly stopped and turned to face the wall nearest to them.

He saw him raise a hand and pan it over a spot on the wall. Immediately, there was a distinct click before the wall folded in on itself unlike how a tunneling crystal usually operated. Instead of obliterating and chewing through dirt though, it revealed a previously hidden chamber. The chamber was not empty though, and much to his and his symbiote's surprise, there were numerous amounts of weapons, explosives, even satchels of tunneling crystals lined from floor to ceiling. Whereas they used to keep weapons on them at all times, in this new age of peace, only Sentinels were authorized to carry weapons, since they were no longer at war or on the run. One had to be either a Council member or Sentinel to gain access to the weapons caches – and he was quite sure that Malek was not a Council member. They still had some of the arrogance that came with who they genetically were to make any Council appointment a pomp and circumstance affair. There had been no such Council appointment or celebration in the past month.

Before he could ask though, Malek stepped in, and for a moment, Aldwin hesitated in following, unsure if really should follow him in. He, however, did see the gesture upwards and looked up and into the chamber – there were still devices monitoring them. They were still not in a private area and rightly so.

He opted to wait by the entrance, allowing Asteria to take partial control to watch more in fascination at the methodical way that Malek had snatched up a small bag and started to load armaments, mainly explosives and at least two satchels of tunneling crystals. There was a strangely intense curiosity that he felt bleeding off of Asteria as she watched Malek go about his weapons load out. While he too was quite curious as to what Malek planned to blow up, he was quite sure that it was nothing malicious towards the Tok'ra. He hadn't heard what punishment Malek and Anise had been rendered upon returning after helping him complete Leto's final wish and mission, but he had not seen a hide or hair of his friends since waking up – until now. Finally, he saw Malek place two zat'nik'tels in the bag before closing it and slung it over his shoulder.

However, before the Tok'ra stepped out of the weapons cache, Aldwin saw him take a staff weapon off the racks as well. This time, he could not stay silent and pointedly stated, “Malek.”

“I was offered a position within the Sentinels shortly after we brought you home,” Malek stated as he left the weapons chamber and waved towards an area on the adjacent wall to close the chamber. “After what we did to get off of homeworld, joining them and adding to the security of this place was the least I could do to reassure them that what happened will not happen again.”

“So you're no longer working on chemical or naquadah research?” he asked, following him back down the halls.

“Not at the moment,” was the curt answer. “My host thought it would be better for both of us for now to serve our people in this capacity.”

A vicious, cruel, and hurtful thought crossed his mind, but before his symbiote could stop him from blurting it out, he said, “Is that why guards have not stopped me from following you or entering what is supposed to be a restricted area... or even entering Hectate's creche? Because I... or my symbiote are a threat and you're _guarding_ us?! The most wanted – no _celebrated_ – Tok'ra in the galaxy is trusted in guarding a mass-murderer and traitor to their kind?!”

That got Malek's full attention as he abruptly stopped, just before they would enter the halls that would take them past the Council chambers and into the city proper again. He saw him clench his free hand for a moment before unclenching it. A moment later, Malek swung the bag from his shoulders. Reaching in, Aldwin saw him retrieve a zat'nik'tel fitted snugly in its holster and close the bag again before turning to him, expression completely blank. “You probably will not need this where we are going, but take this just in case.”

“And where is it that we are going?” he cautiously asked, staring at the weapon for a moment before Asteria's mental push for him to accept it overrode his caution. As soon as he had secured it around himself, Malek turned back around and continued to walk, completely ignoring his question.

He followed, but knew that his friend had every right to be angry at him for what he had said. However, to him, it felt like that it was the truth. That was how he saw it, and ever since his, Anise, and Malek's rather candid talk on board the teltac as they were making their way towards Leto's old stronghold, he really did not see the need to hold back his thoughts about any situation any longer. He was tired of deception, of playing mind games, and lying to people – because in the end, his complicity in that was what had gotten Leto killed.

A few minutes later, they arrived at the chappa'ai, and it was there, stopped by the guards who stood around the perimeter of the gate, that he finally received an inkling of the answer he sought. One of the guards halted Malek from approaching the dialing device, while another took the bag from him to examine it, and a third had approached to ensure that he, Aldwin, did not do anything rash while Malek was being questioned.

“The Council has authorized me to bring him to the Atanik dig site,” Malek stated with absolutely no malice or contempt in the tone of his voice. There was just the simple, calm yet authoritative tone in his voice, and it surprised him as to the quality behind it. However, that thought also sent a bout of remorse through him that was left unsoothed by Asteria – it was because of Leto and him that had caused Malek to become like this and fight against the two of them.

“Why is he armed?” one of the chappa'ai Sentinels asked.

“Surely you do not expect him to go to the dig site unarmed? Even the archaeologists are armed. There is always the chance that the Ori will show up, now that we've confirmed that the site had been home to a Zero Point Module.”

“And these tunneling crystals?” the Sentinel examining the bag asked.

“Anise needs them. They are having some trouble reaching a certain section of the site.”

Just like that, Aldwin knew where they were headed, and immediately did not want to go. However, it was much too late for him to back out of it, and despite his harsh words earlier, he did not want to cause Malek any more trouble. It was not that he was afraid of the world where he had died the third and so he thought for the last time, but the fact that Asteria's memories and the muddled memories of Leto within him told of the world being more dangerous than it showed. There were so many technological items that were kept hidden and safe from Goa'uld hands and others that Anise and her team's digging around worried him.

_**Perhaps we should use this trip to go and see what they have found so far. Though neither you nor I know of what has been taken by looters and the others, perhaps centuries of neglect and looting have all but made the planet safer for now,**_ he heard his symbiote say after a moment of contemplation.

He silently nodded in their shared space, but he could still feel his symbiote's worry. The Ataniks had the technological capability to defend against the Goa'uld, but somehow, they were still wiped off the face of the galaxy. It was only luck that the Zero Point Module had held for so long, keeping the future of the Tok'ra safe in what Egeria and Leto thought would be the safest place in the galaxy.

“All right, the two of you may go,” the first Sentinel stated, stepping back as the other Sentinel handed the bag back to Malek, who took it. Giving a curt nod, Malek strode over to the dialing device and punched in the address that would take them there.

As soon as the whoosh of the chappa'ai activated, he followed his friend into the horizon and emerged into a familiar atmosphere. The chappa'ai fizzled out as the two of them walked down the steps, though Aldwin had a moment to mentally shudder as he remembered what had happened at the steps to this place. Again, there was nothing soothing coming from Asteria, but little by little, he was getting used to his symbiote's lack of open affection or comfort towards him.

“I am sorry, Aldwin,” Malek abruptly said as they continued down the steps and onto the dirt path that would lead them to the dig site. “Alexei and I... we failed to convince the Council to overturn their ruling on you and allow you to join the Sentinels. They did not find the inclusion of Asteria's knowledge on ancient tactics and the like amenable or conducive to the Sentinels.”

He stopped where he was, stunned at the revelation. It was not until Malek was about five steps away that the Tok'ra realized that he was not following and turned back. However, Aldwin's thoughts were swimming – even his symbiote's shock was reverberating through him. Both of them had kept themselves so insular, so secluded just to get away from the questioning and the stares, thinking that a petition to the Council would not ever be heard because of what they were. “A-Alexei... spoke on our behalf?” he couldn't help but whisper in surprise.

“No,” Malek, said while shaking his head, “but he was adamant in constructing as persuasive of an argument as possible. He still wishes not to reveal himself or his heritage to the Council.”

“Oh,” he managed to say before guilt swept through him as the echoes of Asteria's admonishment for his harsh words earlier in the halls surfaced again. “I'm sorry for my earlier words, Malek. I--”

His friend held up a hand, interrupting his apology and saying, “You are forgiven, Aldwin. Anise, Freya, Alexei, and I can only imagine what you are going through at the moment. None of us meant to isolate you for so long, but we wanted to allow you to properly mourn. The Council had also advised us to allow you and Asteria to readjust yourself to our society, though now I see that that has been a mistake. Bringing you here is the least that Alexei and I could do, and Anise and Freya do need both of your help at the dig site.”

Taking the admission and apology for what it was, he nodded and closed the distance between them. As they set off again, he took the bag from Malek and fished out one of the two satchels of tunneling crystals before handing the bag back. Rifling through the satchel as they walked, he could feel Asteria's curiosity rifling through his memories of what he and Leto had done with the crystals. However, as he expected, his symbiote was looking for more weapons and combat-like memories before focusing on the Eye of Ra. He let her see the memories while he concentrated on the crystals, pulling out one that looked oddly familiar.

“Your prototype worked,” he heard Malek murmur as he stared at the clear crystal that had red and yellow flecks embedded into it.

He remained silent at that and placed the crystal back into the satchel. Though he wanted to know when Malek had used the prototype, just the way his friend had said those words and carried himself in that brief moment told him everything. The prototype collapsing crystal had been used at Raisa. He was sure that Malek would never forgive him for what happened at Raisa, and truth be told, he would never forgive himself either.

~◊~

The sun was approaching the tip of the horizon when the two of them arrived at the dig site. Illumination lanterns had been set up and judging from the activity, Malek was quite sure that the archaeologists would be working through the night. From the reports given to the Council, it looked like what caches had been found within the ziggurat was larger than anticipated. He supposed then that it was a good thing he had brought along numerous explosives and the tunneling crystals. Whatever they were trying to extract from the ziggurat would probably benefit from removing several dense layers of stone and earth.

_**Or you're just excited to see stuff blow up again**_ , the teasing rib of his host floated through the shared space. He mentally frowned, but couldn't hold it for long as he felt the infectious mood of his host bleed into him. _**It's nice to be off-world once again**_.

_**That it is**_ , he agreed.

“Malek! Aldwin!”

Turning his attention from the busy site to Freya who had called out and was approaching, he smiled, trying not to laugh outright at just how covered in dust she was. It was Aldwin who said, “You look like one of those desert mice on Betten who had just finished creating a burrow.”

“Oh,” she said in an annoyed tone, before quickly attempting to wipe her face. Fortunately, Malek was faster and had already reached in and retrieved a small face towel from the bag and gave it to her. She scrubbed the dust from her face before stuffing the towel into a pouch hanging next to her datapad holster. “Thank you. I have to remind Dalen next time to not chisel too hard.”

He held up the bag, saying, “Here are the explosives, tunneling crystals, and other requested materials, Freya. Where can I put this?”

“Follow me,” she said, gesturing. They complied, and when they got to a station where a few of the other expedition members were cataloging items into various datapads, he placed the materials, along with the staff weapon on the table before retrieving the zat'nik'tel from the bag and secured it around his waist. There were some grateful acknowledgments by Freya's team for the explosives as they started to contact others who were most likely within the ziggurat with the communicators.

“Ah, good, you already have a satchel of crystals with you,” Freya stated after a moment, before gesturing for both him and Aldwin to follow her. “Come, there's something I want to show you.”

They obliged and as they picked their way through the extremely busy site and into the structure, Malek noted that they were not headed in the same direction that he remembered when they had first came upon this place. Instead, their winding path into cooler and quieter sections was quite deep. Only illumination rods hammered into the mossy, damp corridors lit their path. “How stable is this place?” he couldn't help but ask.

“Quite stable,” Freya stated, continuing onwards, not looking back towards them. “Geological surveys showed no activities within the last thousand years. The force field that had been in this place protected it from Goa'uld ransacking, though other than that sarcophagus and Pandora's Box, they would have found little else of great value. At least that is what we think for now.”

She paused for a moment before turning her head slightly back, focusing on Aldwin, saying, “I apologize, Asteria, but it seems that the Ataniks stored you and Hecate in a most mundane storage facility. We've found bowls, utensils, chairs, and everyday household items thus far. It's a cultural cache for us, but to the Ataniks, it was probably just a place to store excess materials.”

“I and my queen were stored in cobwebs and _junk_?” Asteria answered with a touch of indignant annoyance in her tone.

Freya gave a single nod of acknowledgment before saying, “Other ziggurats that we have done some initial exploring in showed that there had been evidence of forcefields erected in the past. But geological instability, the need to keep items in other ziggurats powered for unknown purposes, or just the uneven drainage of power by the Zero Point Module within caused them fail faster than this one. Storage in this place was probably the only thing that kept the shield going and you, along with our queen alive.”

Malek could hear some grumbling from Asteria before that was quieted down and Aldwin took over again, saying, “But wouldn't the storage and power to keep a functional sarcophagus within the place drain it faster?”

“That was what we thought as well,” she answered. “Strangely enough, because that sarcophagus was Atanik in design, it did not drain power as much as a Goa'uld one. We also found remains of what we think was an Atanik near the sarcophagus. Vaire and her team are currently running analysis on the sample. If they are of an Atanik, we think that perhaps Leto or the Ataniks thought to post a guard of sorts to ensure that if Goa'uld or other invaders broke through, the sentinel might defend them. There's evidence of other possible Atanik sentinels sealed in a few other ziggurats, but we decided to focus on this one first.”

Two more turns down corridors finally led them to the place that Freya wanted to take them to as she stopped before a dead end that held many inscriptions. “That is not Atanik,” Malek could not help but say as both he and his host frowned slightly as they stared at the wall. “That is Ancient.”

“Yes,” Freya confirmed, stepping up to the wall and running a hand over the inscriptions. “The dialect is written in both Ancient and Atanik. This wall is the only place where we've encountered the entwined scripts. Incidentally, whatever is behind this is the only thing other than the forcefield that was draining more power than the sarcophagus.”

“What does it say?” Aldwin asked.

“The Ancient dialect is one that I am unfamiliar with. I consulted with Dr. Jackson, but he has yet to return any translations. For the Atanik, it talks about how one can achieve what they need most in their time of need. Considering the Ori threat and the partial translation, it may well be that there is a weapon we can potentially use against the Ori here.”

“But you cannot open it,” Aldwin finished for her.

She shook her head, “I tried everything, short of placing explosives in this place to see if there was a trapdoor or hidden passage that would lead me past this wall.”

“Crystals, then,” Aldwin said, shaking the satchel slightly. “How thick is the wall?”

“Here,” she said, stepping over to the side where there was more light for them to work with. “It's something that we estimated, but I believe that we may need to combine a few crystals for. The geological material that the ziggurat is made out of is nothing that we usually dig through...”

Malek tuned the two out, as he felt the curiosity of his host pique up and bleed into him. A weapon – any weapon – would be quite useful to not only the Tok'ra, but also to the Tau'ri, and dare he think it, to the Free Jaffa as well. The Council had provided snippets in how the fight was going on between the Tau'ri and the Ori, but it was not much. The Tauri were able to hold out for now, but whenever they tried to gain ground, they lost it elsewhere. It was essentially a stalemate war.

Stepping up, he reached out to brush his hand across the glyphs, but as soon as he touched an embossed letter, there was a rumbling sound. “What did you do?” he heard Freya cry out in slight alarm.

“Nothing! It just opened on its own!” he said as he immediately stepped away as the ground beneath their feet and walls surrounding them shook slightly as the passageway before them suddenly slid open. A dark maw extended out before them, barely illuminated by the rods of light. However, it was only a small room that they had opened, but there was a strange device of sorts that sat in the center of the room.

“What... what is that?” he heard Aldwin whisper in surprise and wonder as the three of them continued to stand at the entrance to the room, staring at the strange device.

It was about three heads taller than the average height of a Jaffa and as wide as an open doorway. He was reminded of a monolith by his host, but strangely enough, it was blue-hued, as if it was not quite reflecting the color of an active chappa'ai. However, it was the sound of Freya snatching one of the illumination rods and bringing it closer to the device that snapped him out of his fugue.

“Freya,” he cautioned as he took a couple of tentative steps forward, noting that there was a very wary look on Aldwin's face. Asteria had not taken over from Aldwin yet, but that did not mean that they could count on the Tok'ra to even know what this was. The more likely scenario was the fact that she was probably as baffled as they all were about what this was.

“Fascinating,” he heard Freya breathe as he saw her lift up her datapad to pan it over a small portion of the device. “Though the Zero Point Module no longer supplies power to it, it seems to have an internal power source itself.”

“It's active?” Aldwin asked, concerned.

There was a pause before Freya answered, “No. It it in a state of 'sleep' if you will. The readings are similar to how the bracers were found. There is power within, but dormant.” She holstered her datapad and switched the light to her other hand. “If I do this--” she reached out with her free hand and brushed it against the monolith before either he nor Aldwin could stop her “--it is as I suspected. It does not react to those with symbiotes.”

“So the Tau'ri or anyone without a symbiote would be able to activate it?” Aldwin asked, curious as he too stepped forward and poked the monolith with a finger.

“Perhaps,” she said, dropping her hand. Seeing that there was no immediate danger, Malek relaxed slightly, but the fact that his host, Alexei, was still quite nervous and uneasy about the monolith did not allow him to drop his guard. “Though I would propose that someone other than I extend this invitation to the Tau'ri.”

Malek reached out towards the monolith as he heard Aldwin say, “I'm sure that they would have already forgiven you for that incident with the bracers--”

At once, as soon as the tips of his fingers brushed across the cold, blue-hued device, they were immediately plunged into darkness as the strangest of sensations crawled through his body. It felt prickly yet sent a small wave of nausea through him that neither he nor his host could contain. However, he did not vomit, and as uncomfortable as the sensation began, it abruptly left. He blinked, and though it took a moment to adjust his eyes to the darkness that had suddenly plunged into the area, including the illumination that had been in the corridors, he took a step back as he saw the monolithic device react quite strangely.

_**Well, that's not a good sign**_ , he heard Alexei murmur in their shared space as the device suddenly faded from existence. Instead of worrying about the lack of device and what had just happened, he focused on his friends, asking, “Is everyone all right?”

“More or less,” came the voice of Aldwin somewhere off to his left.

A flash of light from the illumination rod that Freya had been carrying lit up the chamber. “Whatever may have happened might have rendered the area structurally unsound. We should lea--”

She didn't even get to finish her statement when the first of the tremors hit. Malek was nearly sent back to his hands and knees, but managed to find his balance. None of them needed to say it twice as they ran out of chamber and back through the maze as more tremors struck. Fortunately, with Freya and her datapad in the lead, they managed to escape out into the open. He called out on an open channel to have other Tok'ra expedition members evacuate the place. Moments after they cleared the threshold and ran out into the open, a part of the ziggurat collapsed, sending a wave of choking dust and debris outwards.

“What... what was that?!” he heard Aldwin exclaim as the three of them futilely waved away the dust before a cold breeze manage to carry most of it away.

“It shouldn't have activated,” he heard Freya say as another breeze finally cleared the area. However, Malek was not paying attention to the two and instead, was warily looking around.

“Aldwin, Freya... where are we?” he asked, pulling out his zat'nik'tel and activating it. Of a dig site that was supposed to be quite active and have many of their kind milling about, all he could see was overgrown plants, crumbling ziggurats like the one behind them and the like strewn about. The sun was already past the horizon and dusk was rapidly settling into night, but apart from the call of distant wild creatures, there was nothing that indicated that they had been transported to another planet. Except that he had a feeling that was echoed by his host that they had been.

“What... where?” he heard Freya begin as he heard the rustling of his two companions turn and stare at what was before them. The sound of Aldwin's zat'nik'tel being activated was also heard.

“Freya, stay between us,” he immediately ordered, taking charge. If there was one thing that would be stuck with all of them for the rest of their lives in hopeful peace, then it was the fact that they knew when they were faced with a dangerous situation. The area was peaceful, and there were no carnivores confirmed on this particular continent where the chappa'ai and the ruins laid, but with the absence of the dig site, it had become quite dangerous.

“I have a blade,” she immediately stated. “I apologize for not returning it sooner, but I shall return it to you after we go home, Aldwin.”

“No need,” Aldwin answered just as Malek set off towards the chappa'ai, hearing his friends follow him. With his host alert and allowing him to clamp down on necessary functions of their body to stretch their senses to the limit, he hoped that perhaps the three of them were in reality, just knocked out from whatever the device had emitted, and were recovering within the actual site until they could wake up.

However, he knew that that was a fool's dream, for even if he in particular was knocked out, surely the device was not powerful enough to render his host unconscious either, was it? He didn't know, though from his host's unease, he was getting surer by the minutes that passed that they were indeed, on another planet... or dare he say it as he remembered that Agent Gant had told him and the others during their time hunting down Ba'al and Leto, that SG-1 had been transported to other dimensions by strange devices.

Leaving that thought alone, he focused and continued to lead them back to the chappa'ai. They arrived there without incident, but the stars were out and glittering in the night sky, and a very cold wind had started blowing. Immediately dialing the address for homeworld, he pressed the activate button in the center, but surprisingly, it was not locking – the chappa'ai remained silent. Frowning, he dialed it yet again, but again, the coordinates were not locking at all.

“Try Leto's stronghold,” he heard Aldwin say as out of the corner of his eyes, he saw his friends approach. Both of them were warily looking back and forth between him, the inactive chappa'ai and the dark wilderness. There was nothing to lose with putting in that address for there was still the cargo ship they had left there over a month ago. However, the result was the same.

In frustration, he dialed a litany of other address that he could remember, but nothing he did activated the chappa'ai. Just as he was about to kick the dialing device out of sheer annoyance, a thought sent over by his host kept him from doing it. They didn't have a GDO, but they did have a communicator, and he was sure that the SGC had at least one as well. If they could keep the line open on an unencrypted channel, that could sustain the wormhole for at least 38 minutes to let the Tau'ri know that they needed to send help.

He input the address and pressed the center – this address too, failed.

Just as he was about to unleash a yell of frustration along with a deserved wailing upon the dialing device by his fists, a strong, warm hand landed upon his left shoulder. He turned his head slightly to see that it was not Aldwin who had done that, but Asteria. Apart from the visit to Hectate's birthing creche, this was the first time he had ever seen her take complete control. The way she stood her host's body was similar to how Leto had done – confident and tall. Not that Aldwin was not tall, but Malek had noticed that the Tok'ra tended to stand and walk with a slight slouch, except whenever in front of the Council. He could only attribute it to the many hours that their friend spent hunched over and carving crystals and the like.

“Please allow me to try, Malek,” Asteria stated.

Stepping to the side, he glanced around, scanning the area to see if there was anything or anyone approaching before bringing his gaze back to the device. “What address is that?” he asked, frowning as he didn't recognize the sequence that had been input.

“Abydos,” Asteria stated and pressed the center.

The sounds of the chappa'ai activating was a surprise to all of them, and for a moment, they all stood at the base of the steps, staring at the bright blue liquid that pour light through, illuminating the area. “But, Abydos was destroyed!” Freya blurted out. “Anubis destroyed the chappa'ai with the Eye of Ra.”

“The address is from three thousand years prior,” Asteria said, glancing over at them. “I fear that we may have been sent back in time by that device. This connection to Abydos proves my fear.”

“Ra still controls that planet,” Freya nervously spoke up. “And our queen has not begun her rebellion yet. How are we going to get back?”

“We find a way to,” Malek said, taking a step forward towards the active wormhole. “We won't use a sarcophagus to sustain ourselves. We will find a way back, someway, somehow. For now, we need to find a way to get to another planet that is less hostile and potentially has Ataniks who can help us. The library at Abydos should help us.”

“I agree,” Asteria said.

Malek turned back and held out a hand for Freya to take, knowing that whatever waited them beyond the wormhole, they were not going alone. She slipped her hand into his, tightly gripping it, as her other hand held Aldwin's crystal-carving knife. Glancing over towards Asteria who had allowed Aldwin to take control again, the three of them ascended the stairs and passed through the horizon.

On the other side, Malek blinked in shock that echoed his host's own, as the three of them stared at what laid beyond them in Abydos' pyramid chappa'ai chamber. It couldn't be, yet it should have been impossible, but there many people dressed in loose desert clothing reminiscence of the native Abydonians were milling about. Two of those at the forefront, standing at the dialing device, about to press coordinates in, were Martouf and Rosha.

“On the other hand, I believe that we may have been mistaken,” Aldwin murmured from beside him. “We may have been transported to an alternate dimension.”

 

~*~*~*~

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

 

“Jaffa, kree!”

Aldwin would have jumped at such a forceful command, had his symbiote not grounded him for a moment. It had been Jolinar, Rosha's symbiote who had uttered that command, and not a moment later, the entire antechamber was flooded with the familiar footsteps of Jaffa as the native Abydonians scattered towards the columns, hiding behind them. The sounds of many staff weapons being activated and pointed at them, was quite loud, echoing even further when the chappa'ai deactivated.

Bright sunlight filtering in through the tiny slots of windows that lined the top of the pyramid and reflected downwards lit the area, but it was Freya, who had let go of Malek's hand, raising them high in surrender that got his attention. He briefly looked at her before following her actions and focused on the Jaffa. He didn't recognize the sigil upon foreheads of the Jaffa and neither did Asteria.

Jolinar barked a few more commands while he saw Lantash – identified just by the way the symbiote walked whenever in control of the body – usher the native Abydonians back out of the chamber. Jaffa surrounded them, and roughly took their weapons, the satchel of tunneling crystals, along with Freya's datapad. They were searched quite thoroughly in a very uncomfortable manner before they forcefully tugging their hands behind them and marched them down the steps. They all knew what to do in the case of capture and that was to remain ever silent, no matter the circumstances. Though he wanted to ask why and how their two friends were still alive, he remained silent. He didn't need to read SGC reports on travels to alternate dimensions, only to hear and understand that those they encountered in those alternate dimension were not always who they knew.

Sacks of cloth were shoved over their heads, and he could feel Asteria fill him with courage, erasing what modicum of fear had erupted within him upon their apparent taking as a prisoner. He took comfort in it, and after rough hewn rope was bound across his hands, and torso, he was pushed forward by a Jaffa and started walking towards where the ropes were tugging him to go.

Smooth stone floor started to give way to the steps that led up to the entrance of the pyramid. Scorching sun, along with the dry, arid heat of the desert blasted at them as they made their way down the final steps and into the sandy dunes. They marched for what felt like forever, but not once did Aldwin ever feel his strength fade as they made their way to wherever their destination was. Asteria was making sure that they did not collapse out of exhaustion, for to do so would invite a lot of pain upon both of them.

He had made this kind of march before, though it was not on Abydos. Back then, he did not have a symbiote to sustain him. His symbiote had also done something similar during the early days of the rebellion, having been successfully captured as a decoy of sorts to allow Egeria to flee. Together, they both drew strength from their memories, but deep down, both he and his sybiote knew that without proper food or water to sustain them in this heat and long march, there would only be so much that Asteria could do to keep them alive.

At long last, the sounds of shuffling sand from footsteps started to give way to some far away shouts and noise of what could be describe as a marketplace of sorts. He could hear the creak of gates opening before they marched through and began to step on more hard-packed dirt and the like. Murmurs from what he could only assume to be villagers surrounded him, nearly drowning out the cadenced footsteps of the Jaffa who surrounded him and his friends.

They were marched up polished stone steps that numbered in the hundreds, so much that even with Asteria trying to maintain an equilibrium within him, he could feel his calves and thighs ache from the steps. Still they kept walking, though now the sounds of their footsteps echoed through cavernous chambers.

The tug upon his ropes to stop was abrupt and he nearly stumbled backwards, were it not for the shove that the Jaffa behind him gave him. Stumbling forward, he heard another Jaffa command, “Kneel before your queen!”

He refused, and a moment later, the stinging pain of the butt of a staff weapon being driven into his back to make him kneel drove him to his knees. There were similar grunts of pain from his companions, but they were quickly silenced when a commanding voice asked, “What is the meaning of this?”

He gave a start at the voice – it sounded exactly like--

“Intruders, my queen,” Jolinar broke into his thoughts. “Lantash and I were preparing to begin dialing the sequence in when these three activated the chappa'ai and came through. We thought it best not to proceed. Lantash is placing the villagers back in their creche.”

The hoods were lifted from their faces and though Aldwin rapidly blinked to clear his eyes of the spots that had appeared, he looked up towards the source of the queen's voice. “Lysana,” he whispered at nearly the same time Freya and Malek also voiced their surprise.

The torrent of sorrow that he had half-expected to flood him didn't come, and instead, all that filled him was shock. Even his symbiote had paused in her slow repair of his body in response to him. Lysana, his mate, was supposed to be dead – killed by Sokar many years ago, but now she was sitting upon an ornately decorated and gilded throne. The flowing, sheer black dress that she wore over the black bodysuit was simplistic as it was elegant when compared to the usual ostentatious clothing that the system lords usually wore. The sigil that hung behind her matched that of the Jaffa and as shock slid into horror, he realized that the woman who stood before them was not Lysana, but a system lord – a Goa'uld.

“What madness is this?!” the Goa'uld inside of Lysana hissed. “Two of you are supposed to be dead! Who is the system lord behind this?! ”

“System lord?!” he exploded in anger, unable to keep silent at such an injustice that they had been thrown into. “The only Goa'uld I see here is you! What sick excuse brought not only your host back to life, but also Jolinar, Lantash, and their hosts--”

His tirade was abruptly cut off with a vicious whack of the butt of a staff weapon against the right side of his face, sending him to the ground. Freya's cry of protest was cut short, as was the second strike the Jaffa standing over him was about to inflict. “Hold!” they heard the Goa'uld command. He struggled to look up as he felt his symbiote try to alleviate the pain, unable to work on stopping the bruise that was forming, since she was working with very little nutritious resources in their shared body.

“Take them to the holding cells,” the Goa'uld commanded.

“As you wish, my queen,” he heard the Jaffa above him answer before he was hauled up from the cold floor and half-dragged away.

~◊~

“My queen,” she heard Jolinar apologetically say as she stared at the retreating forms of the three prisoners. “My queen,” her strongest and most talented daughter left alive repeated.

She made her decision and abruptly stood, glancing down towards Jolinar who was still kneeling before her. “I need to see the body,” she stated.

“But my queen--” Jolinar began.

“I need to see the body,” she repeated.

“As you wish, my queen,” her daughter answered, getting up and gesturing for the alert Jaffa who surrounded the place to scatter. Following Jolinar, she made her way through the vast corridors until they happened upon a quiet chamber. As the stone door slid open upon both hers and Jolinar's wave of their hands across sensors, she stepped in.

Candles and incense scattered in layers around the perimeter of the chamber were burning brightly in the chamber. In the center of the chamber was a gilded altar, layered with stone and green leaves. There was a light sky blue cloth draped across the top of it – it was his favorite color after all, but lying on top of that cloth were the pieces. There were hundreds of pieces of human and symbiote flesh, sliced up and sent to her one-by-one until the last one had arrived today just mere hours ago.

She only walked halfway into the center of the chamber before she could take no more and collapsed onto her knees. Jolinar was immediately there, supporting her, and cradling her as a sob escaped her lips. It was such a cruel joke, for her beloved lieutenant and host were still dead – only to come back now in a cloned form or so. The cruelty of Nirrti had struck her once again, only this time, it was from the grave.

As much as she wanted to continue to cry, she gathered herself and slowly stood up, wiping away the tears as she sniffled. Nirrti may have killed her beloved lieutenant and host, but if this was her way of striking back, then she and the master that she served had underestimated just how strong the Queen of Abydos was. She would not be undone by a trick like this.

~◊~

They were thrown into a cell that was lined with thick stone walls on three sides and bars on the fourth. As a further measurement to ensure that prisoners did not escape, a forcefield that was as strong as those encountered within a mothership was seared across the bars. However, he had relinquished control over their shared body to his host, as soon as they had sat up from being tossed in. He was much too preoccupied with the fact that his former host, Lysana, was now host to a Goa'uld.

He was barely aware that Alexei was making sure that both Freya and Aldwin were unhurt, barely aware that even though his host's touch was as gentle as possible, Aldwin was still hissing in pain from the bruise that had formed from where the butt of the staff weapon had been clocked into him. They were all hungry, extremely tired, and very thirsty from the hike across the desert. However, that was the least of his worries.

It was only when Freya tapped the forcefield, sending a loud pinging sound echoing in the cell that he came out of the sea of memories that he had found himself swimming in. Lysana was alive, and just seeing her possessed by a Goa'uld angered him. Asking for control from his host, he waited patiently until his host ensured that Aldwin was doing a little better before relinquishing control.

Looking up and around, he stared up at the corners of where the stone walls met before focusing his attention on the forcefield. However, his observations were interrupted with the arrival of several Jaffa, with one of them carrying a device that looked like a memory projector. Four people followed the Jaffa in, Lysana in the persona of the queen, Lantash, and Jolinar. The fourth person was someone he did not recognize. Freya and returned to where they were and Malek slowly stood up as the group stopped before the cell.

A moment later, the forcefield was released, just as the sounds of multiple staff weapons were activated and trained upon them. Taking a step forward, he knew that it was futile to even do so, but he spread his hands out in a defensive gesture, hoping that the action would at least prevent the queen from ordering her Jaffa from firing upon them. Considering her reaction in the throne room, it was all he could do. None of them had the strength to fight their way out – it would be suicide.

The cell was opened and with a wordless gesture, a few Jaffa stepped in, immediately wrenching all of them apart, pinning Freya and Aldwin on either side of the cell. He was forcibly dragged backwards and pinned against the back wall. Though he tried to fight, two punches to his side, strong enough that he could feel a couple of ribs crack and send shooting pain up across his body, partially collapsed him. He sagged slightly as he blinked the involuntary tears away to see that Jolinar had taken and held Aldwin in a secured hold that he was all too familiar with. One wrong move, and there was a very good chance that Jolinar would snap Aldwin's neck, killing both host and symbiote. As for Freya, Lantash held her at knife point, and the edge of the blade was already digging into her neck, drawing a thin, shallow trickle of blood.

A sharp, stinging pain was pressed into the side of his head before a buzzing sound filled his ears as he blearily looked up to see that the fourth member of the entourage had stepped to the side after placing the memory recall device on him. The Jaffa holding the memory projector had set it up before him, and the queen had taken a seat before it.

“Who are you?” the queen asked in a commanding tone.

“Lysana,” he begged, hoping that somehow, perhaps the host that the queen possessed still had strength to fight. He knew how strong his former host in his dimension was, and thus if she had the same strength here, perhaps now was the time to use it. “Please... do not do this...”

A searing pain echoed across his mind, and bled into the shared space as the memory recall device was set to full by a wordless gesture from the queen. As both he and his host screamed, he fell into a spiral of darkness and memories...

 

“ _T-thank you,” he heard his host whisper in gratitude towards the stranger who had reached across the lattice cell and placed a cool hand across her burning forehead. Malek could not spare a lot of his attention on the external as he furiously worked to try to repair what Sokar's torture had done. Even though he himself was also injured, his host had been brutally tortured more than he had been. She had organs that were failing, internal bleeding that he needed to stop, and not to mention bones that needed to be mended._

_However, the more he diverted from one place to another, shunting resources that shouldn't have been diverted, the more he could not stop one internal failure from building up to another. There were just too many things that needed to be repaired and too little of her body's natural resources, along with his own strength that could help. She was dying, but he was determined not to let her. They would make it out, they would be rescued--_

“ _Malek,” he heard his host whisper both externally and internally to him. “Please, stop.”_

_**I cannot** , he protested. **I will not let us die here** \--_

“ _You have a better... chance to... live... than I do,” she said, taking a labored breath as Malek's efforts to control the internal bleeding led to one of her lungs collapsing. “Please... take what we have learned... and... escape. Take it back to the... others. You need to warn them about Sokar.. This man... he has... not been tortured as much. You... can save him...”_

_**Lysana** , he began, but could feel the urging of his host surge through their shared space. **Please, do not do this** , he begged._

_However, she was already moving out of her own volition, and despite his attempts to stop her, she was already leaning towards the lattice that separated their cells. The human that had placed his cool hand on her fevered forehead had not moved, and he heard her say, “Please... I need you... to... take him back... to our base. He has... vital information that my... people... need.”_

“ _What do you need me to do?” the man asked._

“ _O-open your mouth... and accept... him...”_

_With horror, he could see that the man complied, but he was no longer in control and he could feel his host shoving him out of their shared space. She had so much strength that even in her weakened state, she was still quite formidable. He wanted to resist, but he did not want their last shared moment to end in bitterness. Instead, he sent grateful thoughts and a thank you to his host._

_He jumped._

_His new host jerked but he did not take control just yet as he felt him shift slightly, gagging as he buried himself within his new host. He only made a tentative connection to his host's eyes, just in time to see Lysana take her last breaths before closing her eyes and falling still._

“ _Is your n-name Malek?” he heard his new host ask as he tried to stem the tide of his own grief from spilling into the thin connection that he had made. It would be too much for the connection to bear the brunt. If he wanted this blending to be successful, he could not flood it with too many things at the moment._

_**Yes** , he answered. **Who are you?**_

 

“Just a human--” he heard his host say as he snapped out of the painful, vivid memory. However, his protests towards what his host was doing died as they both were immediately plunged into yet another memory...

 

_There was a sliver within the cabinet door that he peeked out of, even though Mama had told him to completely close it. He heard the breaking of the front door, the sound quite loud like a gunshot. Papa's pistol immediately went off, as did Mama's at nearly the same time, but answering those shots were the rat-tat buzz of rifles. The sound was frighteningly loud, but he kept his hands clamped over his own mouth._

_Silence immediately followed the burst of fire from rifle. He could hear people moving into the living room, muttering to check that Mama and Papa were truly dead. However, he recognized the accents – they were not of Leningrad or a foreign country. The accents that those who attacked them were from Moscow._

_Moscow!_

_The government had betrayed Mama and Papa. The government whom his parents had been discussing weeks ago about retiring from her service to live a more peaceful life had betrayed them. Anger filled him as he heard the vultures pick through the living room. However, the closer they got to the kitchen, the less chance he had to be able to escape._

_Slamming the cabinet door open, he tore out of the confined space as he felt the heat and impact of bullets brush by him. Diving out of the nearest window, he landed on the slanted rooftop and slid down. He could hear shouts, along with more reports of rifles peppering behind him as he tried to slow his descent on the rain-slicked roof. Fortunately, he managed to grab a hold of the gutters and hung on for a moment to arrest his fall. Glancing down, he saw that there were a few piles of garbage bags and other things that the neighbors were throwing away. It was three stories, but at least he would be able to survive the fall with hopefully not a lot of injuries._

_Letting go, he could still hear the shouts of those people from Moscow as he painfully landed on garbage bags. He could feel one of his ankle twist, but as he rolled out of the pile and back onto the sidewalk, he wasted little time, ignored the pain crawling up his leg from his twisted ankle, and ran._

 

“--who had training from his parents; both of whom were KGB agents,” his host continued. Malek could feel a protective envelope wrap around himself, coming directly from his host as a surge of confidence filled their shared space. “Let us play a game now... and we shall see how long until you tire of it,” his host stated with a touch of arrogance in his tone, as he found them staring straight at the queen. He felt his host curl their lips up in a cruel smile as the memory that burst forth was something that even he had never seen before...

 

_They were back on the streets of Leningrad, except that instead of the various different buildings that decorated the streets, it was all uniform, bland, and quite uninteresting. He was running, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with him this time, as he ran through the rain-slicked streets for what felt like forever..._

~◊~

Aldwin blinked, coming awake from his meditative state as he felt Malek's hand twitch. Or was it Alexei in control... he didn't know at the moment. He glanced down to see it twitch again, and released it from his own hands. Malek's head was currently pillowed on Anise's lap, with her having taken the watchful vigil from him to allow him to rest a little. By his and his symbiote's count, it had only been a half-hour since.

However, he could feel Asteria's relief as they saw Malek's eyes start to flutter, and sent a query towards her. In the month that they had spent blended together, she had never taken a keen interest in any of the other hosts or symbiotes. That is, until they had finally traveled off world. Her palpable relief for Malek and Alexei's recovery was much greater than Anise or Freya's recovery, but it was quite odd to feel her interest piqued by his friends' presences.

They had all endured the memory device torture that the queen had inflicted upon them, but while he was sure that he or Asteria did not give away anything vital, he was not sure about Anise or Freya. Hence a part of Asteria's disdain for the two's recovery. However, what they had witnessed for Malek, or rather Alexei's resistance to the memory device was incredible. Despite himself, he found it rather glad that the loop of running through the streets of what he could only assume was the home city of Alexei, had frustrated the queen enough that she had stopped.

But that first memory that the device had latched upon, was painful, not only for him to witness, but for Malek as well. Lysana was loved by both of them, and there was no doubt as to why that particular memory had surfaced. The Goa'uld queen in this dimension held the face of one they both cherished, but there was nothing that they could do, short of killing her, to free her. Though Malek's memories of Lysana's last moments alive was quite heart-wrenching to watch, Aldwin was glad that he had seen it – glad to know that his mate had fought and resisted Sokar's torture until the very end.

However, the memory device torture had left Malek and Alexei the longest in recovery time, but Aldwin was relieved they had begun to show signs of waking up. After Leto's death, his determination to fulfil Leto's last wish, he had seen the grief upon his friends' face at what he was trying to do to himself to atone. It was the reason why he had tried to get the Atanik sarcophagus working again – he did not want to die. And now, he was not quite sure that he could bear to lose anyone close to him.

“Aldwin, please fetch some water,” Anise softly said.

And that was the other oddity that they had encountered after the memory device torture. The queen and her cohorts had left, but not before he fuzzily remembered her ordering one of her Jaffa to remain and watch them, while another to fetch food and water for them. He and his symbiote had passed out after that, but they had awoken to Freya wetting their lips with some water. The gesture to give them food and water was quite odd, and at first, he was afraid that the queen was ensuring that they had more strength to endure another round of torture. However, that had been dashed when the Jaffa watching that simply stated for them that the queen wished for them to recover what strength they had lost during the journey to here.

That statement had been further confirmed when Jolinar had entered and stated the same thing before leaving. At his symbiote's urging, he had taken a minimal amount of food and water that his symbiote needed to continued to repair his body. It was not poisoned either and Asteria could detect no trace of foreign elements with the food. However, he dared not eat more than his symbiote needed, lest it be a trick.

However, Malek needed water and some food, and thus, he crouched at the place where another Jaffa had left the pitcher of water, goblets, and a plate of breads and salted meats for them. Taking a small amount and a goblet full of water, he returned, just in time to see Malek open his eyes and look around in utter confusion for a moment.

“Here, drink some water, Malek,” Anise said, gingerly helping their groggy friend sit up before Aldwin brought the goblet to his lips and tipped it slightly. As soon as Malek had had his fill, Aldwin saw him attempt to remove the goblet. He obliged, as he saw him place a hand to his forehead instead, groaning in pain from a headache.

There was nothing that either of them could do to help Malek or his host for the matter, to alleviate the headache that came from the aftermath of using the memory recall device. Even with a benign usage, there was always a headache that came with it. Both of them waited a few minutes more before Malek finally removed his hands from his face and looked from side to side.

“Food?” he offered, holding up the piece of salted meat and slice of bread. “The queen command it to be left for us to consume. It's not poisoned.”

Malek gave him a dubious look before seeing that there was no other choice and accepted the offer. While he ate, Aldwin returned to refill the goblet and set it to the side. After a few minutes of eating silently and washing the bread and meat down with a couple of gulps, it was movement outside of their cell that caught all of their attention. Aldwin frowned in concern as the Jaffa that had been watching over them abruptly left.

At once, the three of them rose from where they were sitting, though both he and Anise caught Malek by either arm to steady him as he had only just recovered. Perhaps the Jaffa was reporting to the queen that they were all now awake and the torture was to resume. None of them could be sure, but they wanted to be ready just in case.

A few minutes later, the sound of footsteps echoed through the stone halls, and complement of Jaffa arrived, along with Jolinar. They stopped before the cell, but far from the first time, the Jaffa did not point their weapons or activate them as Jolinar deactivated the forcefield and opened the barred gate. “Queen Egeria wishes to speak to you, Malek of the Tok'ra. Alone.”

Aldwin was not the only one to blink in shock as he and the others stared at Jolinar. It was only Asteria's quicker recovery and her rather forceful kick in their shared space that shook him out of his shock, “E-Egeria?” he could not help but whisper, unable to fully comprehend the fact that the queen who had interrogated them in such a vicious fashion was this dimension's incarnation of a Goa'uld system lord.

“Whatever your queen has to discuss, she can discuss it in front of all of us,” Anise boldly spoke up, stepping forward while gesturing for Malek to remain where he was.

Aldwin glanced over to see a pensive look upon Malek's face. Out of the entire Tok'ra, Malek had been the only one to have spoken to their queen before she had died. While Aldwin had never paid too much attention to rumors and the like, even during his month of isolation and recovery, he had heard a few of his fellow Tok'ra speak in slightly jealous tones of what Malek had been granted. That, along with his status as one of the most wanted of the Tok'ra during the waning days of the Goa'uld. It had made him popular among some of the more liberal Tok'ra, while conservatives such as Per'sus, did not find Malek's the popularity welcome. However, as far as Aldwin knew, Malek had absolutely no interest in the politics that governed them.

“Anise, it is fine,” Malek said, placing a hand on her bony shoulder in comfort before removing it and taking a couple of steps forward.

Aldwin wanted to reach out and stop him from complying with the request, for there was no way to tell if this gesture, along with the food, was all a sham. However, a sharp glance from Malek to him caused him to abort his actions. There was a keen look in Malek's eyes that was familiar – it was a look that he had seen countless of times before. However, that had been through salvaged observation feeds during his time working with Leto as a false system lord in the service of Ba'al. That look meant that Malek had a plan.

As soon as the Tok'ra stepped out, the cell was once again latched and the forcefield activated. “Take me to her,” they heard Malek say. This queen, Egeria or not, may have gleaned that they were Tok'ra, but the Tok'ra had not just fought against Ra, they fought against all system lords. Whatever, plan Malek had in his mind, Aldwin hoped that it worked.

~◊~

The urge to kneel and bow his head as he came to a stop in front of the system lord claiming to be Egeria was great, but he took heart in what his own reality's Egeria had told him before she had died. He was no servant of hers in this reality. They were equals. However, the more he stood there, watching her in silent observations, the more that Jolinar's claims seemed to be true. He had thought he had caught a glimmer of the persona that Egeria had displayed back in his dimension during the interrogation, especially after that first painful memory had made itself evident. He did not know what had happened to the others after the queen had given up interrogating him, but he hoped that she had relented and did not torture them as she had done to him.

There was also the gentle reminder from his still-sleepy and recovering host that this Egeria, if she was actually Egeria, was not the Egeria he knew, and thus he was not beholden to her or to her commands. He had come here out of his own volition, even though Jolinar and the Jaffa who had escorted him here thought otherwise. He had had the opportunity to turn down the request, but since learning who exactly inhabited within Lysana, he was rather curious.

“You may leave,” Egeria stated to both Jolinar and the Jaffa. They hesitated for a second before he heard the scrape of Jaffa armor upon the floor and their footsteps fade. He remained where he was, standing with his feet about shoulder-width apart and hands clasped behind him. His host was still sleep-addled, but he could feel him start to awaken, interest piqued at what was happening.

“I apologize, Malek, for forcing you to relive those painful memories and for disturbing your rest,” Egeria began, unfolding her hands that were clasped in front of her and letting them drape to the side, “I hope that with time, you shall forgive me for what I have done to you.” He saw her reach up with her right hand, and even though he wanted to step back to keep her from cupping her palm against his left cheek, he stilled himself. If she had ill intent or was going to kill him, he would not still be standing here.

He found it strange to see his reality's former host, do such a thing, when he remembered Lysana using the same gesture upon Aldwin to comfort and encourage him in the dark times they had faced. “Unfortunately, I find myself unable to continue to look at either Freya or Aldwin for the moment, and thus, I find myself talking to you, Malek,” she stated. “May I know the name of your host?”

He reached up and grasped her hand within his own, removing it from his face as he took a step back and let her hand go. “I cannot give you my host's name, Egeria. He wishes not to be known by anyone else.”

A sad smile appeared upon Egeria's face, familiar to him, as she said, “You were always quite protective of your hosts, Malek. Even in this reality. That seems to be one of the things that had not changed, has it not? It must pain you to speak to me, or rather, face a different reality of your former host like this, does it not?”

He remained silent at that question, but the queen did not let the silence linger too much and instead, turned to look out at the vast desert wasteland. She brought her arms up and leaned them on the railing for a moment before letting them drop as she stared out and said, “I will help you – all of you to return to your reality. I know not how you have achieved peace within the galaxy, but it is a world in which I wish not to disturb. I would see you returned to, so that you may all live out the rest of your lives in the peace you deserve. This galaxy here, this reality... it is already too late for us.”

From her words, he could only surmise that his assumption about the fact that it was possibly Freya and Anise, whom had most likely been interrogated with the memory recall device, who had given away some details of their reality. Had it been Aldwin and Asteria, then Egeria would have made a comment about the system lords in detail. Freya and Anise had been as far removed from the fight as possible, even with their research into Leto's domain and technological capabilities back then – hence the vague statement of peace within the galaxy from Egeria.

He did not fault either Freya or Anise for faltering in their resistance. It was only because of what his host had done that they had survived without giving anything vital away. He knew that his host had had some basic training in interrogation resistance from his parents, but Malek had not know how much until now. However, with that small thought, there was a supplement to it from his host – his host was surprised as well at just how solid the looping memory had held up to the interrogation. Their gamble had worked.

She turned from staring out into the dark desert, saying, “I cannot produce anymore children and most of them are all but gone. My ten children are all that I have left, and my greatest adviser and friend deserted me because of what happened. Once I die, the other system lords will tear my domain apart, and I fear that my legacy will all but disappear into a dusty tomb. So I will help you and the others return to your reality before that happens.”

“What if...” he began, closing his eyes for a brief moment before opening them, bolstered by the encouragement and sympathy that he felt bleeding from his host and into him. This system lord, even as she called herself as such, was Egeria. There was a quality about her, and the tone she carried that he acutely remembered from his meeting with his reality's Egeria. “What if there was a way we can help? To ensure that what you leave behind is a more peaceful galaxy? We can give you technology, techniques--”

“Malek,” Egeria said, interrupting him as she took a step forward and took his hands into her own, gently squeezing them. “Please. Do not give hope where there is none. Do not think you need to atone for what you have done to Leto--”

He tried to pull away, but she had a firm grip upon his hands. Doubt immediately filled him – had their gamble failed? He wondered just how much of his and his host's memories and feelings had bled into those memories they had shared during the interrogation. Both him and his host fuzzily remembered the session, for they had been drowning in the sea of panic-- a sharp slap by his host to him within their shared space refocused him again as he saw that there was an understanding look within Egeria's eyes.

“We did not extract much from your memories, Malek. What techniques you and your host used to prevent us from fully seeing into memories worked. We only received fragments, but from those fragments, I can safely assume that you loved Leto, even though you never told her and you executed her before finding out her true nature. Malek in this reality is dead, but he dearly loved Leto. You and my Malek are quite similar in their devotion to her, so please, do not think you need to atone and bring about a more peaceful galaxy to us here as a way to repay the one you loved and lost.”

_**Leto!** _

“Leto is alive in this reality, is she not?” he shakily asked, as he felt his host take partial control to keep them standing.

“Yes,” she answered, letting go of his hands and turned back to stare out at the desert. “Due to the recent death of her sister, Asteria, along with the death of Malek that had happened a month prior to Asteria's death, she left my service.”

“What happened and how recent were those deaths?” he asked, uneasy with the fact that if Egeria was serious about helping them, there was a chance that they would encounter Leto. Given how ruthless he knew she could be, but had been held back from completely destroying the Tok'ra during her 'alliance' with Ba'al in his reality, this reality's Leto could be far worse and have little remorse.

He saw her thin her lips for a moment before saying, “Asteria and her host, Aldwin, died a month ago. They were sent by me on a mission to assassinate Nirrti. They succeeded, but they could not escape and were captured by Nirrti's allies. I was sent pieces of her and of her host for the past month. The last of those pieces arrived only mere hours before you and the others stepped through the chappa'ai.”

“That... that is...” he began but was at a loss of words, unable to describe his disgust at what system lord had killed Aldwin and Asteria, and then had the gall to taunt Egeria with hacked up pieces. It was not a wonder then, why Egeria had looked and acted the way she had acted when Jolinar had presented them to her.

“Malek... Malek and his host, Taelon, were captured during a mission. Leto attempted to rescue them and succeeded, but both host and symbiote had been tortured too greatly. Neither could be saved.” She folded her hands and rested them and her arms along the railing of the balcony, heaving a great sigh. “As for Anise and Freya, they were my best operative. They had many confirmed kills, sabotages, everything... even their name was whispered among some of the Goa'uld with fear. But, they had been turned into a za'tarc. They tried to assassinate me. I had to kill them.”

“Lantash and Martouf was the za'tarc in my reality,” he quietly said. “We managed to save Lantash only for him to sacrifice his life to allow another Tok'ra to escape.” He decided not to mention anything about SG-1 who had escaped with Selmak, not out of loyalty or a sense of protection, but out of the fact that perhaps the Tau'ri were all but wiped out in this reality. Considering the drastic changes between the one he was from and this one, it could very well be the case.

“Yet despite the hardships and loss of those you cared about, there is peace in your galaxy, whereas there is still war in mine,” she said, glancing over at him. “I will do everything I can to help all of you return home, but as I said before please do not feel that you must atone for what you did to the one you loved. She is, in a sense, still alive in your reality – through both her sister, Asteria, and her host, Aldwin.”

He opened his mouth, but found himself at a brief loss of words before a mental reassurance by his host gave him the courage to speak up. “Leto and Aldwin... they were complicit in all that they had done, and though a part of me can never forgive them for what they did...”

“A part of you still cares for them,” she finished for him. “It is both human and Tok'ra to think that way, Malek.” She stepped away from the railing and faced him, the smile upon her face no longer a sad one. “Though I know not your host, I can see how he has influenced you and brought forth the very nature of compassion that I tried so hard to instill within my children in this reality. Thank you, Malek, for showing me what my children can become, and for giving me back the hope I thought I had lost.”

“I... I,” he began, and could not help but bow his head in embarrassment. Even his host was feeling quite unsure what to make of such a generous praise that was certainly undeserved. She didn't even know them, yet from such small memories extracted and the words they had exchanged, she had come to this conclusion.

“You loved and your lost,” she said, taking a step forward and gently cupping him on the cheek again. This time, he did not shy away and leaned slightly into the gesture. “Do not despair. The pain will fade and you will have time to love again.”

He remained silent and a moment later, she dropped her hand and took a step back, clasping her hands in front of her. In a more formal tone, she stated, “Tomorrow, I shall call a meeting, for I do not have many resources to help you in the capacity that I want to. However, I do know of a system lord who may be able to give some assistance. That device that we saw through Freya and Anise's memories that brought you here, is Atanik in origin, is it not?”

“We believe so, yes,” he said, nodding.

“Good,” she answered. “I bid you a good night, Malek. Please pass on my words to your friends. Sleep and let not the weight of your thoughts and sorrow weigh upon you for this night.”

“Egeria,” he began as she turned to make her way back into the fortress, causing her to pause. “Who will you be contacting?”

She shook her head, saying, “I would rather not say just yet. Due to many instances of communication disruption by our enemies, contact may or may not be established. If it cannot, then I shall have to see what other resources can be garnered.”

“Thank you, Egeria. Truly.”

~◊~

If there was ever a prophet, Egeria would surely be one, or at least in the area that Malek was concerned, a prophet of dreamless and peaceful sleep. He and his host had woken up more refreshed than they had ever been. Egeria had come by to see them in the early morning, personally offering a humble apology for what she had put them through. The apology had been accepted with grace, and they had been allowed out and led to temporary quarters.

Now, with a clean change of clothes and a morning meal recently completed, he and his friends were standing side-by-side in the main hall. Only Lantash and Jolinar had deigned to stand next to the three of them; Egeria's eight other children stood opposite of where they were standing, staring at them in a mixture of surprise, wonderment, and fear. There was a complement of Jaffa, but they were not close to the throne, at least not close enough to hear the conversation that Egeria was about to embark upon.

“My children,” their queen began, drawing their attention from the three of them and towards her. “We have been visited upon by travelers from another dimension. Two may seem familiar to you, but do not mistake them or the third for your brothers and sisters who had perished. Asteria and her host Aldwin, along with Anise and her host Freya, and Malek are in need of our help. As much as we all miss them, these travelers do not belong here.”

She looked around at all of them before continuing, “The device that brought them here is of Atanik origin and disappeared upon their arrival. All of you know that there is only one system lord that we can contact for assistance in the matter with regards to the Ataniks. He will most likely demand to come in person to offer assistance, but he shall not put us under rule again. I will not let him.”

“We can offer the location of several caches of naquadah reserves that we found on Golan as payment--” Lantash began, but fell silent as Egeria held up a hand.

“There will be no discussion of that until needed, Lantash.”

“As you wish, my queen,” he answered, bowing slightly.

Malek was not the only one to frown in puzzlement and concern as he quickly glanced over to see that both Freya and Aldwin held nearly the same expression. If this system lord that Egeria was contacting agreed to help, there would be some favor owed or payment. He knew little to nothing about the war that Egeria and her people were fighting, but the fact that Lantash had immediately suggested giving up reserves of naquadah in exchange for the system lord's help was troubling.

Just before he turned his attention back to Egeria, he saw Aldwin tilt his head slightly. The wordless gesture was meant to convey that they needed to discuss the consequences and possible payment on their own – none of them wanted Egeria and her people to pay for them, yet to get more involved in another dimension's war could have potential long-term ramifications. He was sure that even as benevolent as Egeria seemed to be right now, she was most likely quite interested in how they achieved peace in the galaxy.

He didn't know how much information Egeria extracted and how much she shared with her children. She had gleaned much from the fragments of his feelings with regards to Leto. But if she had extracted that much from him, there was no telling how many fragments she had extracted from the others. Even with their benign and candid conversation last night, Malek knew that they would have to be careful in coming up with a way to pay for passage back to their dimension.

He watched the queen touch something along the arm of her throne before a holographic screen appeared in the middle of where they were all standing. There was some static before the noise fizzled out as a connection was made. However, what appeared before Egeria and them was a cat-like humanoid with light, almost golden-like fur, with a black stripe of fur that seemed to run from neck to navel, and glittering green-eyes that suddenly flared in a golden glow before dying down. The mark of a Goa'uld possessing the host.

“Egeria,” the cat-like creature said, and Malek agreed with his host that both of them could have sworn that the creature had literally purred the queen's name.

“Greetings, Ra,” she stated.

 

~*~*~*~

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

 

_**Atanik!**_ Aldwin heard his symbiote cry in alarm as the cat-like creature apparently named as Ra in the transmission began discussions with Egeria. The stunned silence that reverberated through their shared space remained. However, as much as he wanted to focus on what Egeria was discussing with Ra, it was the surge of danger and of grave concern coming from his symbiote that alarmed him. Ra should have evoked such a feeling, but strangely enough while it did, it was the host that Ra possessed that Asteria focused on more.

_**That is an Atanik?**_ he asked, hoping that he would be able to reach his symbiote before she decided to do something rash. While the existence and sharing of the body between host and symbiote was equal, at least in practice, in theory, it was a little different for him. He and Leto had coexisted together peaceably, but he had been well aware that she was not a child of Egeria, and thus did not have the genetic marker for compassion written into her. Neither did Asteria, and this was the first time he had felt the symbiote react so wildly.

_**We must stop the negotiation! We cannot allow an alliance to be made! We must--** _

He sent a wave of soothing thoughts towards her, trying to reassure her that he would do all that he could to stop. However, he was not going to let her take over his body for the moment, seeing that she was very emotional about what was happening. He got the sense that she was not frightened by the individual presence of the Atanik host or of Ra, but was frightened by the combination of both. _**Tell me what the potential is, Asteria. Tell me, so I can stop Egeria without harming her.**_

His insistent questioning and prompts to calm her down partially succeeded, but instead of answering his query, she focused on the ongoing discussion. Still, he did not ease control over their shared body, for he was still fearful that she would do something extremely rash. He did, however, allow himself to focus on what his symbiote was listening to, and what he heard chilled him.

“...Atanik in origin,” Egeria was saying. “Neither the travelers nor my people know how it was activated, but perhaps you know of a device that behaves in a similar fashion?”

“Why,” he saw Ra lean forward in a slightly hungry and menacing manner, “should I even bother to help you, Egeria? Might I remind you that it was _you_ who broke our alliance? Who betrayed me at Chulak and cowardly ran away? Who--”

“And might I remind you, Ra,” Egeria broke into the system lord's list of grievances, “That it was I who sent my best agent to assassinate Nirrti. That it was I who sent another agent to assassinate Sokar. That it was I who kept sending agents to kill your rivals and allowed you to expand and absorb not only their fleets, but also Jaffa into your domain with little recompense. That it was I who have lost more than you can ever know but also secured this place for you, _and_ continue to hold it, even as we speak. If you ever need a point to launch your attack against Anubis and retake your throne, _you will need my help_ , Ra.”

Ra bristled in the same manner that Aldwin remembered seeing cats do when faced with unease or anger at something. However, the yowl or hiss that he had expected to issue from the system lord's mouth never came. He was quite surprised at just how viciously Egeria had cut into Ra's pride, but this system lord's personality and just the way he spoke was quite different than what he remember. The arrogance was still there, but Ra's behavior and spoken words were different. Aldwin could only attribute it to the host that the Goa'uld had taken.

“Very well then, Egeria,” Ra said after a moment, clearly unhappy. “We shall visit the possibility of opening this alliance once again, but know that I will not travel alone. Those who serve under me must be able to trust you once again, after all, your betrayal at Chulak is still felt among us.”

The queen gave the system lord a graceful nod, but did not lower her eyes from the transmission as she said, “We shall expect you and your allies at the end of the week then, Ra. The usual statues are in effect so long as you remain here.”

Abruptly the transmission ended, but before Egeria could address all of them, Aldwin stepped forward from the side, knowing that if he didn't state Asteria's concern now, his symbiote would most likely be able to break free of his control and forcibly take over. It hurt him to think or act in the way he acted, for Tok'ra host and symbiote were never supposed act like the Goa'uld they were fighting, but he had had over fifty long years of adjusting to Leto and how she acted at times. She and her sac-sibiling were both philosophical defectors from the Goa'uld, not genetically removed.

“Asteria and I have concerns about Ra, Egeria,” he stated, remembering only just that this Egeria was not their Egeria, even though their Egeria was long dead. He meant no disrespect, but after what Malek had told all of them last night with regards to their fates in this dimension, he now understood a little better about why the queen reacted the way she had. Asteria had immediately forgiven the queen's actions upon her personal visit to them this morning. However, knowing what he knew about his symbiote, of Leto, and of what he had willingly done after dying at Revanna and being revived, he found himself unable to fully forgive Egeria.

She had realized her mistakes and apologized, but she was still Goa'uld, not the compassionate Tok'ra queen that they had been told about – and that he had captured a glimpse of in his symbiote's memories. This Egeria had a ruthlessness about her that he saw a hint of in that transmission. Coupled with his symbiote's concern about Ra's host and of the alliance that she kept insisting should not be made, worried him greatly.

“Ah,” Egeria answered, a smile upon her beautiful face that did not reach up in her eyes. “I see that there may be some commonality in the memories that you and your symbiote share with my former lieutenants.” She clasped her hands together and rested them on her lap as she said, “Please allow me to readdress what I had stated to my former lieutenants to reassure them of Ra and his Atanik host, even though we are not allies anymore. It is fortunate that Ra had taken the Atanik as his host, for their knowledge and derivative technology used to enhance ours and other system lords allied with him have been a major contributor to all of our survival.”

Unclasping her hands, she waved her left hand over an area on the armrest on her throne. In the center where the transmission had been projected was now replaced by a holographic map of the galaxy. Three quarters of the pinpointed dots that Aldwin could only assume was habitable planets were lit up in a bright blue color, while the rest were in red. “We are here,” Egeria said, zooming into an area on the edge of the blue and red deliniation line. To his surprise, the map indicated the red highlighted planet to be Abydos, not blue as he had come to associate good to be.

“The stronghold of our enemy is here,” she said, zooming slightly further out to indicate the planet closest to Abydos, and from what he knew of the proximity of Abydos to other planets, there was no mistaking it. The Tau'ri homeworld, or Earth as they called it, was highlighted in blue. That world had been the central seat of Ra's power until a rebellion had happened that ousted the system lord. Surely Egeria, Ra, and the others allied with Ra were not fighting the Tau'ri?!

“Under Ra's command and rule, the Ataniks were able to develop new technology that benefited the Goa'uld as a whole. That is until our enemy sudden arose from the ashes of defeat and started to conquer other human and Atanik colonies before launching an attack on Tau'ri. Ra was eventually driven from the world, and in our twenty-three centuries of war thus far, we have found that our enemy is able to control technology that we have never seen before. It is only because of what technology Ra was able to escape with that we have thus managed to hold this small sector of planets against our enemy. So please rest assured my guests, a revival of the alliance is beneficial.”

“What happened at Chulak?” he asked, as he felt his symbiote's panic start to ease in processing and accepting the explanation. It was more for practical purposes that he agreed with it, but in principal, he was not happy. The 'benefit' that the Goa'uld received from the many millenniums of subjugation of humans and other hosts alike was most likely worse than what their dimension had suffered under.

“It was a calling of a temporary truce between Osiris, Nirrti, myself, and Set. Osiris and his queen, Isis, along with Nirrti had captured some of Set's key forces. Set asked me for help to arrange a meeting where we could exchange something of value for the forces. I volunteered to give them one of the six discs known as the Eye of Ra to them. I knew that Osiris already had one, but it would prove tricky to locate and retrieve. My intention was to implant a tracking device to discover the whereabouts of the other Eye of Ra.”

She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts before continuing on, saying, “However, rather than allow the exchange to proceed as planned, we were betrayed by Osiris during the exchange, and I was eventually forced to jump hosts to survive. That was the true trap that they had set, not for Set, but for me. I was the only Goa'uld capable of producing progeny left alive on Ra's side, and the enemy knew it. Nirrti had modified all viable hosts within the perimeter to genetically render me sterile. We lost not only another disc of the Eye of Ra, but also could not retrieve the prisoners, and could no longer supplement our forces at will. But this was one of many incidents that eventually caused the breaking of my alliance with them.”

“Egeria, who is this system lord you and the others have been fighting for twenty-three centuries?” Malek interrupted as Aldwin glanced over to see a concerned frown upon his face.

“He calls himself Anubis.”

~◊~

_Later..._

 

Sleep was eluding him once again as he paced around the small room as he tried to implore his symbiote to answer his questions. Since the end of the brief transmission to Ra and the subsequent dispersion, the three of them had been left alone to their own devices. That is until Lantash and Jolinar offered to show the three of them around the place – to get them oriented so that they would not be dependent on the others. Aldwin had also suspected that it was because the two had been the first ones to encounter the three of them and participated in the memory interrogation session with their queen, that they were the most comfortable in dealing with them. That and the fact that he detected traces of remorse from the way the two symbiotes held themselves.

But neither said a word about other circumstances and only offered apologies for the way they had behaved towards them that Aldwin left it alone. However, in their 'tour' around Egeria's compound, they learned that she was still mining for naquadah. It had disgusted the three of them to learn that the barbaric practice was still being done. Jolinar had defended the practice by pointing out that Egeria was using the naquadah to trade for other resources to rebuild ships that she no longer had. Anubis had left the Abydos alone strictly because Earth, or Tau'ri as they called it here, was heavily defended enough that the system lord knew that Egeria was not stupid enough to attempt to invade. That and also Abydos no longer had one of the discs of the Eye of Ra.

Leto's memories had provided him his knowledge about what exactly was the Eye of Ra and what it could do, but not how it was created or if it could be modified. Those were deep memories lost somewhere in blending that he would need a memory device to retrieve it. It was Asteria's memories about possible usage of the Eye of Ra that he had caught a glimpse of during their initial blending and secondary one just before they had stepped offworld, that intrigued him. That and the Atanik memories she apparently refused to share with him. Those two questions and questions derived from it was what he was imploring his symbiote to share. He did not want to use a memory device to dive into Leto's memories locked within him, for it would be hard to control and he was fearful that he would drown in those memories. He wanted his symbiote to dive in and retrieve those memories and answer his questions--

There was a quiet chime at his door, shaking him out of his thoughts, before a soft voice filtered in from outside asking, “Your light is still on. Is everything all right?”

He stopped his pacing and approached the door. He was still unused to the fact that he was now sleeping in a place with a door, a place where he had complete privacy from the world. He was so ingrained in the shared space and lack of privacy unless requested that it took him a moment to remember to wave his hand before the sensor to open it.

A burst of happiness filled the shared space that had long been silent as he felt his symbiote perk up with the appearance of Egeria. To his annoyance, a part of that happiness was also drawn from his own memories of Egeria's host. He roughly clamped down on those memories, knowing that it was a rude thing to do to Asteria, but he was still thoroughly annoyed at her behavior today, along with her reluctance to even talk to him. If she was hurt by his mental actions, she didn't show it, but neither did she demand control over their shared body.

“Everything is fine, Egeria,” he answered. “I am still just adjusting to the circumstances here and sleep seems to not come easy at the moment.”

“I apologize for not tending to you and the others today, but I had much to do after this morning's transmission. Would you like to walk with me for now?” she asked. “I am sure that though Jolinar and Lantash may have answered most of your questions, you still have questions that you would like to ask after what happened this morning. I would be willing to answer those questions.”

“I would like to take you up on that offer,” he said, stepping out as the door slid close behind him.

~◊~

The uneasy sleep that Malek had fallen into in the quiet night was disturbed when he felt his host, who was in control of their body, shift and get up, silently padding to the entrance of their quarter. He felt him press an ear to the wall nearest to the entrance and heard muffled voices before two pairs of footsteps walked past their entrance. When those footsteps were almost faded in noise, it was only then that he felt his host open their door and peer out and down the hall.

Sleepiness still gripped him, but it was partially lifted as both he and his host saw Aldwin walking side-by-side with Egeria before disappearing down towards another hall. It seemed that Egeria had finally worked up the courage to talk to Aldwin and possibly Asteria, after telling him that she had been uneasy with the prospect. The two were most likely going somewhere to talk in private, much like he had done so with Egeria. However, his nudging of his host to return to their sleeping cot, so that he could at least get some semblance of a proper rest was not immediately answered. His host kept staring down the hall, and he could feel a frown grace his host's expression.

And then it hit him like an ice-cold water being doused upon him. Had his host developed an interest in... _**Are you jealous, Alexei?**_ he gently questioned, not completing his thought, for there were too many variables that one could take into account as to who exactly his host was jealous of.

Silence answered him.

It kept stretching until he thought he would never get an answer unless he dove into a more hormonal search. However, he was much too sleepy and tired to do so at this late into a sleep cycle – it was something he could passively complete when he was more refreshed. Everything here was antithesis of what he knew, known, loved, and lost, so it wasn't a stretch to consider that his host's own feelings were mixed in this as well. He would need to discern if it was his own feelings accidentally bleeding into his host's feelings or it was truly his host's own feelings.

_**Just concerned, Malek,**_ his host answered before letting the door slid close and returning to the sleeping cot.

~◊~

“I confess,” Egeria began as they exited the sleeping quarters area and into the more spacious halls of the compound, “that it was only at the urging of my host that I worked up the courage to even see if you were still awake. I had half hoped that you were not and that I would be able to go another day without further interaction.”

In any other case, Aldwin supposed that the words would have been a little disconcerting, if not impolite, but in these circumstance he understood her reluctance. Even in that brief questioning he had about Ra and the Ataniks, she had not directly looked at him when giving her answer. “It is because I and my symbiote recently died in this dimension, is it not?” At her slight incline of her head in agreement, he continued, saying, “Malek told us that you had been sent pieces of myself and of Asteria, but he did not tell us which system lord sent those pieces. Was it Osiris?”

“Ah,” she said, glancing over at him for a moment before looking forward again, shaking her head, “No. It is true that after I jumped into Lysana here and discovered Nirrti's treachery, my Aldwin, or rather, my Asteria in particular, flew into an apoplectic rage. There was no stopping her or her host in seeking out Nirrti. But she was too well protected back then. I tried to stop her, tried to refocus her anger, and for a while I succeeded. But, emboldened by what she had done to me, Nirrti continued to plague all of us. Eventually, she dropped her guard. However, instead of sending Asteria in to strike a blow, I sent my Malek in.”

“But...” he began, his footsteps slowing down until he stopped.

“Malek was able to strike a critical blow but was captured,” Egeria said, turning to face him, but still unable to look at his face for more than a few moments. She looked away, saying, “he was rescued by my Leto, and as I am sure you heard from your Malek, both host and symbiote died. However, his sacrifice enabled me to send Asteria in with confidence that the assassination was going to succeed, and that there would be no complications in getting out. I was only right on one account.”

She continued to walk, and Aldwin hurried to catch up as she softly said, “I know not which system lord sent the remains of my lieutenants.”

He could hear the tenderness in her words, especially when talking about his other dimensional self and of Asteria. “W-were we...?” he began tentatively, but found that he could not finish the question, even as curious as he was.

A brief, sad smile flitted up the corner of her lips as he glanced over to see her in profile. This time, she was able to look over towards him and hold his gaze for a few long moments, saying, “We were not lovers, if that is what you are asking.” She returned her eyes to the front, saying, “Though I would not have blamed you or anyone else for assuming that. Asteria and her sister, Leto, along with their hosts throughout the centuries, were my left and right hand, respectively. I trusted them to run my domain whenever I was not present, and for them to raise and train my children whenever I could not. They were, in essence, extensions of my will.”

“Lysana,” he began, but felt a knot in his chest take hold. Taking a few calming breaths, he felt the knot ease slightly before saying, “Lysana was my mate in my dimension.”

“I know,” she answered. “I caught glimpses of that relationship within your friends' memories. I am sorry that I cannot give you the comfort you seek because my host is not the Lysana you know, just as I know that you and Asteria cannot be the lieutenants I need. Your memories of your Lysana live on in both your own and within Malek, while mine of my lieutenant are in my memories. That is all the comfort either of us can derive.”

He stopped as they crossed into the perimeter of the throne room and briefly closed his eyes before opening them. He was sure that Malek and Freya would not be happy with him proposing this, but both him and his symbiote shared the same sentiment thus far. He was still cautious to completely trust Egeria, but thus far, her words and actions made sense, given the circumstances. There were elements of what she did, such as mining naquadah that he disagreed with, but it was necessary to keep her and her people alive.

“Anubis was defeated in our dimension,” he stated after a moment. “Though I know of your wishes for us to not become involved in your war, after what the Tok'ra had gone through, I cannot bear to leave this one in dire straits. Asteria still does not agree to your alliance with Ra, but both of us accept the reasoning behind it. My proposal is simple: since your Leto is not longer serving you, please allow me to search through my memories to see what can be done with the remaining four discs of the Eye of Ra. I had been host to Leto before she died, and thus the memories of her creations, including the Eye of Ra is within my own.”

He saw her thin her lips in response to his proposal, a familiar look to him from his own memories of when his Lysana wanted to agree but knew better than to. “Judging from what you've told us today about how two of the six discs came into Anubis' possession, I can only assume that the other four are safely hidden away. In our dimension, Anubis had all six discs and wreaked havoc upon our galaxy. It was a miracle that we were able to defeat him. He doesn't have that advantage here yet,” he explained.

“Would you not rather discuss is with your friends?” she asked after a moment. “It is already clear to me since we halted your interrogations that you are all philosophically different than I or my children. I am quite sure that many of our recent actions and future ones have disgusted you. That is also one of the many reasons why I would like to send all of you back to your dimension as fast as possible. The longer you stay, the more exploited your valuable knowledge becomes.”

She took a few steps forward and whirled around, looking quite stately and imperious – as if addressing a subject under her rule as she said, “I will not let that happen to any of you. We will fight this war in the way we know how, and while I do not deny that the knowledge you offer me is tempting, I would be a fool to accept it. There are just too many differences between our dimensions that--”

“Then you are a fool, Egeria.”

Aldwin found himself blinking in the shared space, shoved from control as he heard his own voice reverberate with the tones of a symbiote taking over. _**Asteria!**_ he yelled, slamming his fists against the walls she had put up in their shared space. He tried to access control over their shared body, but to his shock she had everything locked down, much like he had done so during the discussion with Ra.

Egeria's surprise at the sudden change was only to blink her eyes before she said in the most neutral of tones, “Asteria.”

“Accept the knowledge, my queen,” he heard his symbiote state. “I myself have been locked for thousands of years and do not know of the war fought between the Tok'ra and the system lords. However, I do know my sister, and I know that that knowledge is swimming deep in my host's memories. The Egeria I served before she rebelled was much like you, and she would have used it to any advantage possible.”

A frown appeared on the queen's expression as she cautiously approached, circling around them as a vulture would when unsure if the carcass was dead, dying, or still alive and able to fight. “Your behavior is very Goa'uld, not Tok'ra as you claim to be, Asteria. Let your host resume control,” she said, lifting her chin slightly as if attempting to intimidate Asteria with a commanding look. “Only then will I comply.”

“And your behavior at this moment is born out of compassion,” Asteria answered, but did not even dare to justify it with a sneer that Aldwin thought she would have, given what she had just done to him. “But I am Tok'ra, as is my host. I merely sought to remind you of what should be done to survive, my queen.”

At once Aldwin felt himself bleeding back into control over their shared body as he involuntarily coughed, feeling as if he had held his breath for a while. He blinked, looking at Egeria whose expression had not changed. “Will you accept?” he asked her, knowing that he needed to talk to his symbiote later about what she had done.

“The memory device will be attached behind your left ear and set at a low level so that you may work through the memories. Since you have decided not to consult your friends, I expect that you will keep this discreet, and I will do the same. You will have until Ra's arrival to produce anything that is of use. If you do not, I will no longer consider any suggestions from you or Asteria. Neither of you are not my lieutenants, nor am I the queen or host you had once loved. Am I clear?”

“Yes,” Aldwin said, nodding.

“I want to hear it from Asteria as well,” she said.

Aldwin ceded control for a moment. “As you wish, my queen,” Asteria stated before returning control.

“Good,” Egeria crisply said. “Follow me.”

~◊~

_A few days later..._

 

“I don't like this,” Malek heard Aldwin mutter as he joined both him and Freya in the halls, with the door to his quarters sliding close. They were wearing their original outfits, freshly patched and cleaned, in order to further set themselves apart from those who existed in this dimension. Egeria had told them that Ra knew of her children and when they had been allies, had supported a few of them in more clandestine operations to undermine Anubis. Thus, the outfits, along with their already clearly demonstrated different mannerisms would help reinforce the fact that they were not of the galaxy or dimension.

The matter with his host having woken up in the middle of night a few days ago had not been entirely resolved – mainly because he had not had time to investigate. Throughout the week, he along with Freya and Aldwin had tried to secretly come up with a way to see what knowledge they could part with from their own dimension on how to defeat Anubis that would not give Ra any incentive to keep them here. None of them dared discuss it with Egeria or the others, for they did not want to bind her or the others to the request to transport them back. It was already enough that she had called for a gathering and that Ra agreed to it – they did not want to capitulate or compromise her even further.

“Ah, good, you are already on your way,” the voice of Martouf at the end of the hall where the three of them had been given private quarters, called out to them. Malek frowned slightly as he saw Martouf approach them, carrying weapons and a satchel. The host stopped before them. “Here--” Martouf said, handing the one of the two zat'nik'tels to him, while the other and the satchel went to Aldwin, before handing the knife to Freya. They took them and secured it on themselves as Martouf continued to say, “Though we do not anticipate any treachery on Ra's part, in the event that he has brought a device, our queen thought it more prudent to return your arms to you so that if you are transported back, everything you came with goes with you.”

“Is it not second-nature for a system lord to practice treachery upon any making of an alliance?” Freya asked, raising an eyebrow.

A familiar smile appeared on Martouf's face before he inclined his head slightly and said, “Yes, but I do not know if this was true in your dimension as it was in mine, considering that you call yourselves Tok'ra and not Goa'uld--” it took all of Malek's effort to not bristle at that statement “--but... our queen had been Queen Consort to Ra many centuries ago. She was not like many of Ra's previous Queen Consorts. She was quite active in helping him rule his domain, using her children such as I to maintain order. Through that system, she was instrumental in detecting the rise of Anubis and subsequently warned not only Ra of it, but also several of Ra's vassal system lords. We were able to mount a fairly good defense against Anubis before the war escalated. I am afraid to admit this, but it must be said that Ra and our queen's fallout was not without fault on either side.”

“Our Egeria rebelled against Ra and the system lords in general over two thousand years ago,” Malek said, but did not elaborate.

“If you would forgive me for interrupting,” Freya spoke up, “but I thought it was what happened on Chulak that broke the alliance. Your words indicate that it was not so. What else happened to cause your queen to break her alliance with Ra? Is it something that we should take care not to mention if questioned?”

That smile that was on Martouf's face slid into a more uncertain one as he said, “I do not think that you will be directly questioned, but suffice to say, it was a complex series of events that eventually broke the alliance. It involved Ba'al, Qetesh, and Leto.”

“Leto?” he questioned, curiosity getting the better of him, hoping that Martouf was not going to leave it at that.

“I would rather my queen explain it to you, if she so chooses, Malek,” Martouf apologetically said before stepping to the side. “Shall we go now?”

“By all means, let us,” Aldwin stated, nodding, “though I do have a question myself for you while we walk, Martouf.”

“If it is something that I can answer unrelated to the breaking of alliances, I would be more than happy to answer it,” Martouf said as both he and Aldwin took the lead down the hall.

“Every time that we have seen or talked with you, it was always Lantash in control. Why now? Why show yourself, Martouf? And I don't mean just you. It seems that everyone here, including your queen, prefers the symbiotes in control.”

“Ah,” Martouf said, shaking his head slightly. “I suppose that it is one of the many philosophical differences between us and your Tok'ra. My control versus Lantash's usual control over daily functions is an exception today. Let us say that since the breaking of the alliance, Lantash has never been diplomatic whenever dealing with Ra or Ra's remaining vassals. To ensure that perhaps this meeting today will be somewhat smooth, I am in control.”

“And Jolinar or Rosha? The others?” Aldwin pressed.

“Hard to say,” Martouf admitted, surprising all of them. “Since your arrival and the calling of this meeting, there have been whispers of others perhaps allowing the hosts control for this meeting. In a way, your very presence is causing a stir of sorts. A good one, I might add. It would certainly make Ra more uncomfortable, but to achieve a good outcome, I do think that our queen will remain as she is.”

“Do you know who else will be traveling with Ra for this meeting?” Malek asked.

“Unfortunately, no. Our concentration in this galaxy-wide war since the breaking of the alliance has been to ship resources to planets that are in need, or to help evacuate villages via the chappa'ai. We also try to destroy planetary resources before they are brought under the control of Anubis. We haven't been monitoring the larger fight between Ra and his vassals against Anubis and those who follow him. Therefore, the fact that Ra agreed to this meeting is a bit telling – he is in need of help.”

Martouf paused for a moment before tapping his chin and saying, “However, we do know that Qetesh has become Ra's Queen Consort, so perhaps she will be there.”

“Oh dear,” Aldwin muttered, shaking his head slightly. “If Qetesh is anything like our dimension's Qetesh...”

“Vain, prickly, narcissistic, and prone to trying to make other Goa'uld jealous of her rather generous assets?” Martouf asked in a semi-light, semi-serious tone.

Aldwin shook his head in agreement, “Yes. It seems that your dimension's Qetesh and our dimension's Qetesh are the same then. My former symbiote's memories of her was... strained at best. She's dead in our dimension, thank goodness.”

“How did Qetesh die?” Martouf asked.

None of them had a chance to answer as they finally entered the great hall that had been the throne room, but was now converted to the place where they would be receiving the guests and where discussions would take place. Martouf was immediately drawn away by a call from one of Egeria's children.

Left alone, Malek immediately scanned the hall. It was opulently decorated, more so than what they had seen when they had first arrived. Light, long, and large curtains of sheer white and gold draped the sides. A large, round table with several comfortable-looking seats sat in the center of the hall. Several more stool-like seats surrounded the perimeter of the round table – most likely for additional Goa'uld who would be present. He continued to look around, noticing that the dressage of Egeria and her people was a little more luxurious and slightly impractical, but not quite bordering the overly gilded and jeweled costumes of the system lords that he remembered. He also noticed something extremely odd about Egeria and the others.

“We are the only ones armed,” he stated, frowning once again. Though there were only a couple of Jaffa scattered throughout the hall, along with some servants who were bringing in pitchers and dishes to the tables set to the side, no one was armed. The Jaffa had ceremonial staffs upon them, but Malek felt as if all eyes were upon them, just because they wore their weapons.

“This is much like how that particular summit was conducted with the system lords. No weapons permitted,” Aldwin murmured from beside him. “At least that was in the briefing that Ren'au gave to SG-1.”

“Except that we don't have the symbiote poison upon us,” Freya muttered in a dark tone.

“We could give them that, in exchange for passage back to our dimension,” Aldwin answered. “Except that neither you, nor I, nor anyone of us here know the formula. I can remember building the casing to house the development of the poison, but not the formula. Ren'au guarded it quite closely.”

“We would not give it to them either way,” he answered, turning slightly. “It is much too dangerous in the hands of these people here, even their queen.” He shook his head slightly, saying, “We will think of another thing to barter. There are still too many unknown factors about the war their fighting.”

“Yes, sir,” Freya stated, startling him with her words. He was not the only one to fully turn and stare at her, for Aldwin had done the same; looking quite baffled. “What?” she said, giving an impish smile. “For all the stories that we have heard of SG-1 and their travels backwards in time or to other dimensions, we ended up in one ourselves. I believe Agent Gant and the way the SG teams operate have rubbed off on you, Malek. You do behave as if you are the leader of our 'team'.”

He frowned as he heard the echo of the same sentiments coming from his host of all people. Though his host was still wary of any persons from his homeworld and still preferred to not let his name or origin be known to any of the Tok'ra, Alexei was insistent in echoing Freya's assessment. Instead of justifying or even trying to defend himself against Freya's words, he merely sighed, shook his head and returned his attention to elsewhere in the hall.

Fortunately, he and his friends were saved from a more awkward silence as Martouf returned to fetch them. “They are arriving,” Martouf said, gesturing for the three of them the join Egeria and the others. “Our queen wishes not to reveal the presence of the three of you until proper introductions and the like are made--”

“Ceremonial purposes, is it not?” Aldwin interrupted, looking slightly annoyed.

Aldwin's interruption was quite rude and uncharacteristic of what Malek normally associated him with a kind and politely curious behavior. That was another thing that worried him besides how to get back to their dimension. Since their arrival and subsequent release from captivity, he had noticed that Aldwin seemed on edge, especially after calling out Egeria on the fact that Ra was an Atanik. He had to give credit to his host – Alexei certainly had been more observant of Aldwin's behavior that particular night, if his host's statement was anything to go by.

_**That is partially true**_ **,** he heard his host say to him before seemingly settling into their shared space, far more interested in the proceeding that was about to happen than anything else at the moment.

Malek glanced over at Aldwin, frowning. Today's discussion with Martouf during their walk to the hall had seemed to mask some of the agitation, but he knew Aldwin too well to be fooled. He had wanted to talk to him before today of this, but every time he had tried to initiate dialogue, Aldwin had feigned some excuse of sorts.

“Yes,” Martouf said, seemingly unruffled by the interruption and led them to where the others were gathered.

They arranged themselves so that though they would be able to see who arrived, it was Egeria who was front and center, standing just behind the round table. Jolinar and Martouf flanked her left and right, respectively, while the other eight children and the three of them arranged themselves far enough behind to not impeded on what he could only assume would be a grand introduction. While Malek clearly remembered several of Ra's rather ostentatious presentations to cowering Jaffa or prisoners, during his time in clandestinly operating in the midst of Ra's forces, he wondered what an Atanik was going to do. This Ra clearly had a different mannerism than the Ra he remembered.

“May I present, Supreme System Lord Ra, Sun God and Lifegiver of all,” the servant standing by the massive doors that led to the hall stated as the door cracked open to allow the system lord to enter.

It was a fairly grandiose entrance, but much more subdued than he would have thought Ra to display. The cat-like creature host of the system lord wore a finely ornate and heavy cloak that had a headdress attached to the back of it. The headdress was a familiar sight – a ruby-red disc about twice the radius of Ra's head, with two golden horns sprouting up from either side of his shoulders. The body armor he wore was golden as well, but the fabrics underneath the armor matched the color of the cloak, though they billowed out as if they were made of a lighter material than the cloak.

A single, trusted lo'tar accompanied Ra, though Alexei had helpfully supplied a fairly descriptive and accurate representation of the cat-like Atanik for a similar one on earth: that of a brown, mackerel tabby cat in color. The Atanik though, was wearing nothing as ornate as his master and had on a more practical, easy-to-move-in outfit. However, there was a very strangely devoted look upon the lo'tar's face, and Malek could not help but wonder if the lo'tar had ingested nish'ta. The last time he had seen something similar to the Atanik lo'tar's look was several centuries ago, when Anise's host back then had accidentally ingested nish'ta.

Pushing that thought to the side, he saw Ra barely sketch a nod of his head, much less a bow towards Egeria, though he did notice that the system lord's eyes had widened slightly upon seeing him and his friends. However, nothing immediate came of it as Ra stepped to the side, just as the servant at the entrance announced, “May I present, Queen Consort Qetesh, the Beautiful.”

Similar to Ra, Qetesh walked in with a haughty air about her, with her lo'tar following quite meekly behind her. Though he had only seen Qetesh's host a couple of times before in their home dimension, he couldn't help but wonder what Vala Mal Doran would have thought about the turn of unfortunate events once again. The haughty look upon the Queen Consort's face seemed to become just a little more arrogant and almost turned into a sneer as she walked from the entrance and looked around, catching her eye on Egeria. However, as Qetesh approached Ra, she too, finally noticed the three outsiders standing behind Egeria, and also of the weapons they carried.

The fact that Ra did not mention or acknowledge that there were three in the hall with weapons, kept her silent from making her own commentary, even though Malek could see that she wanted to. That was the most interesting thing besides the possible nish'ta-ed Atanik he had seen thus far – Qetesh was actually being reined in by the mere presence of Ra, when he knew how forceful of a personality Qetesh's host had.

“May I present, Lord Set, the Wise.”

Set entered with his blood-red cape flying behind him, flourishes and all. Set's lo'tar entered after his master, but with a gait and look that was very observant of the situation around her. Malek's hackles were immediately raised – Set's servant was dangerous. However, apart from Set's lo'tar, was Set himself; it was the impish smile that he immediately gave to Egeria before approaching. Like the others, though, that smile slowly disappeared as he too saw who exactly was standing behind the queen.

Malek ignored the outright laughter from his host inside of their shared space at just how the three of their presences, along with the zat'nik'tels they carried were giving the system lords a pause. From their looks thus far, he could safely assume that all three system lords had worked at one point in the war against Anubis or before that with either Aldwin or Freya – and also knew about their deaths in this dimension.

“May I present, Lord Yu, the Magnificent,” the servant declared. The entrance of Yu, a familiar ally, according to what the Council had stated that SG-1 told them, was the most subdued entrance thus far. The system lord merely walked in, glanced around the hall, and then took his place beside Set. Even Yu's lo'tar had to scurry in and hurry to stand behind his master so that he did not make his master look like a fool. Everyone in the hall stood in silence for a few long minutes, for the servant at the entrance looked as if there were still other system lords arriving.

“Our final two guests have arrived, Queen Egeria,” the servant said at long last, glancing down the hall towards Egeria. At the queen's nod to introduce them, the servant announced, “May I present, Lord Ba'al, the Cunning and his consort, Leto.”

Malek blinked in surprise at the mention of that name, barely aware that Aldwin had shifted slightly beside him, and that Alexei had taken over some of their shared functions to keep them standing. He had expected to possibly encounter Leto elsewhere in this dimension, but didn't realize that after her departure from Egeria's service, she ran back to Ba'al. It also slowly became apparent to him that Egeria herself, along with her children had also not expected her presence as well, as a low murmur rose and then fell silent with the entrance of Ba'al and his consort.

“Ailin,” he heard Aldwin whisper half in horror, half in surprise. While it was known to the Tok'ra that Aldwin and Ailin had come from the same planet, only he along with Freya, Anise, Martouf, Lantash, Jolinar, and Rosha had known that the two were related by blood. The two were cousins who had been rounded up by their local system lord after it was discovered that Aldwin's older sister had attempted to kill the system lord when the system lord had taken her as a bride. As further retaliation after the killing of the woman, the system lord had imprisoned her entire family and extended relations. Out of a group of twenty relations, only Ailin and Aldwin had escaped with their lives.

To see Ailin as host to Leto as she gracefully approached from the entrance, arm-in-arm with Ba'al made him worried and sick at the same time. Ren'au had been Ailin's symbiote in their dimension and both of them were already formidable – both politically and clandestinely. He knew never to cross them because of their fearsome personalities. Leto, he already personally knew of her behavior as both system lord and as Tok'ra. To see her in control while drawing upon the stately figure that Ailin possessed – this was a frightening combination of Ailin's personality, blended with Leto's as a system lord.

Much like the others, both Ba'al and Leto's eyes widened when they the three of them standing behind Egeria, though Malek knew that it was Aldwin and Freya who were giving them pause and not him. He was still safely anonymous, and though his surprise in seeing her alive and well had turned into ambivalence, he wasn't sure as to how to proceed. However, unlike the others, Leto stopped. She immediately disengaged herself from Ba'al and took a step forward.

“What is the meaning of this, Egeria?!” she demanded.

 

~*~*~*~

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 03 Dec 2016 - Back from a much needed holiday. Apologies in advance if this chapter is slightly disjointed - it was written before and after my holiday.

**Chapter 4**

 

Poised and in control, Malek heard Egeria calmly answer Leto's demand by taking a step forward, turning slightly and gesturing towards the three of them, saying, “They are travelers from another dimension.” She was not only addressing Leto, but all of the gathered system lords. He could feel the intense, nearly hostile looks that the system lords were giving them, but most of the scrutiny was directed at both Freya and Aldwin. “It is as I told Ra. They were brought here by an Atanik device that has since been destroyed upon their arrival. In the interest of sending them back to whence they came and for my renewed support among all of you, I require the usage of the same device that we have here in this dimension.”

“You have been away too long, Egeria. Of what could you possibly know or offer--” Set began, but immediately fell silent as Ra held up a clawed hand.

“What knowledge have you to share?” the system lord asked, almost purring his words. “Speak and we shall see if it is enough to bargain for your three... guests...”

Instead of immediately answering, she gestured for all the system lords to take a seat at the table. Martouf turned towards the three of them and gestured for them to also take a seat at the table, while Egeria's other children took their seats around the perimeter. While Malek was glad for the inclusion, he was also not apolitical enough to know a ploy when he saw one. Tapping Aldwin on the shoulder, he silently gestured for him to sit directly next to Egeria on her _right_ side, while he would be sitting next to Aldwin's left, and Freya would be on his left. As he took his seat, he caught the tiny, almost imperceptible nod from Martouf – he had guessed correctly.

With Aldwin in the 'right hand' position, and Jolinar on Egeria's left, it created the illusion that was sure to give some of the system lords some discomfort, knowing what they knew of this dimension's Aldwin and Freya. Even dead, the two with their other dimensional counterparts at the table, along with Martouf sitting to the left of Freya and Jolinar on the left side of Egeria, would help signal that the queen was serious about what she intended.

Their seating arrangement also gave him a prime, slightly profiled view of Ra. Though he was not sure where to begin as to how to read such a host that Ra had taken, he hoped to catch minute movements or twitches that would help him build a profile of the system lord. Unfortunately, he could not count on his host to provide him with any clues as to how to read a cat-like creature, for all he found in his host's memories were of him scratching the top of stray cats' heads or randomly feeding them some food whenever his host encountered them in alleyways.

Alexei sent him an apologetic thought about his lack of helpful memories, and he accepted it, reassuring his host that it was not detrimental to their goal. Focusing back on those around the table, sitting next to Ra's right was Qetesh. Martouf showed no signs of discomfort in sitting to the right of the Consort Queen, but Qetesh's expression held one of utter disgust – she knew that Martouf was in control, not Lantash. Alexei inquired again if he should take control to further discomfort the other system lords, but Malek was cautiously against it. If they pushed too much as host-controlled on their side, then Egeria's bid would fail. For now, it was better to keep the balance with Jolinar, Egeria, and him in control of their respective hosts, and Aldwin, Freya, and Martouf in control from their own symbiotes.

To Ra's left was Set, then came Yu, and then Ba'al, and finally, Leto. If Leto gave any sign of discomfort in sitting so close to the queen that she had served, she did not show it. Jolinar, sitting to Leto's left, did not even acknowledge Leto's presence next to her and instead, was focused on the other system lords. However, as Malek mentally went over how they sat, he realized that Leto, even if she had ran to Ba'al after leaving Egeria, was still not trusted among Ra's entourage. By becoming Ba'al's consort, he became her shield against scrutiny from the other system lords.

He knew that Ba'al had always been a maverick of sorts in their dimension, even as a system lord. The system lord was also quite flexible whenever it came down to warfare, and territory defense and expansion. After the Tok'ra network, it was always Ba'al they had to guard against, since he had the best spy network out of all the system lords – Anubis's interrogation techniques not withstanding. He hoped that perhaps somethings did not change as much between the two dimensions – if Ra was not going to be amenable, then Ba'al would be useful as a subversive target.

A holographic representation of the galaxy, the same map that Egeria had shown them a few days prior, was brought up and projected for all to see. “The latest naquadah shipment raids that we have conducted indicate that Anubis has withdrawn his forces from these planets--” she highlighted several planets within the mass of the blue domain “--and has not dispatched those under his command to stop such raids.” Folding her hands together, she continued, saying, “Using the four Eyes that you have, Ra, I would suggest that focusing the energy produced from them as a beam of sorts. While this beam will not be able to destroy the chappa'ai on each planet, you will be able to carve a gorge deep enough to release each planet's molten core and prevent him or his vassals from reestablishing a foothold via the chappa'ai on those planets. They would be forced to process shipments via teltac or ring transport, making it easier for your forces to raid them.”

There was silence around the table before Ra asked, “And how, Egeria, did you come by such information about how the Eyes work?”

No one missed the narrowed look that Ra had slid in the direction of Leto, who had a stony expression upon her face. Malek realized the implications of that look – Ra knew and had planned for something similar to blast upon a planet's chappa'ai. Had Leto actually left Egeria's service? After all, in his dimension, Leto was the only one who had carved and given Ra the Eyes – it could have been the same here. However, from the flinty look that Leto was leveling not upon Ra, but upon Egeria, it seemed that she had indeed left Egeria's service. Whatever the queen had just said was driving a further wedge between the two--

“I gave it to her.”

All eyes, including his own focused on Aldwin, who had spoken up. Momentary shock coursed through him before it was swiftly replaced by anger. However, he felt his host tamp down on that anger and sent a whisper of caution to not do anything rash. He wanted to grab Aldwin by the front of his outfit and shake some sense into him – this was what they did not need to get tangled into. He did not want to reveal to the other system lords that they had valuable knowledge. Otherwise, Ra and the other power-hungry Goa'uld would want to keep them here.

He held himself still, taking care not to betray how he felt as Aldwin continued to say in a fairly caustic tone, “I find your actions thus far in your... twenty-three centuries of war against Anubis quite pathetic.”

Ra was not the only one whose eyes blazed golden with anger as the system lord said, “You insolent--”

“I'm not done yet!” Aldwin hissed, eyes directly upon Ra, ignoring everyone else around the table. It did not escape Malek's notice that even Egeria was taken aback by the furious outburst. “Your petty arguments against Egeria and her people have cost both you and your allies time, along with the resources you should have already been using to start with! At the rate Anubis conquered your galaxy, he should have already wiped all of you out, Egeria included. He hasn't because he is only toying with you, delaying the inevitable, and giving you false hope. He is giving you time to band together into a cohesive force so that you may attempt to crush him and instead, he will crush you! This is only to show all others that he is absolute. I know this because he has done this time and again in our galaxy!”

“And what, is the state of _your_ 'claimed' galaxy?” Ba'al suddenly asked before Aldwin could continue.

Malek immediately took the opportunity and placed a firm hand on Aldwin's left shoulder, squeezing it a little harder than he normally would, hoping that it was enough of a subtle warning to him to not continue to speak. He was already angry enough that Aldwin had given Egeria information about the Eye of Ra without consulting the rest of them – but lying to their faces while they tried to come up with ideas during the week... that hurt him more deeply than he cared to admit.

“We have defeated Anubis and are now fighting a war of invaders from outside of the galaxy that threatens all lives,” he answered, keeping his words as vague as possible, for he didn't even know if the Ori had even bothered to make themselves known here. The lack of mention of the Replicators in Aldwin's short summation of just how long the system lords had been fighting Anubis in this galaxy told him as much.

“From the memories I had extracted,” Egeria broke in before he could continue, “it seems that you, Lord Ra, are leading the effort to wipe out the new scourge after your victory over Anubis. The knowledge that these three have imparted with were willing and one of the many things they used to destabilize Anubis's power base.”

That was as blatant of a lie as ever, but Malek kept his expression neutral as he searched the eyes of the system lords, finding himself focusing on Leto in particular. There was a keenness to Leto's eyes, but the stony expression was still upon her face. Her judgment and place among the system lords was still being questioned. If she was not cleared in name before this summit was adjourned, it was likely that even Ba'al would abandon her. Though he knew nothing of this Leto in this dimension and only what was told to him about her, he found that he didn't want that for her.

“It would be such a shame to not keep--” Qetesh began.

“Send them back,” Yu interrupted, much to everyone's surprise. Even Egeria looked quite startled at that blunt statement. “Those three give Egeria too much knowledge that she can hold against us. We should immediately send them back now so that she does not take full advantage of their knowledge. Clearly her arming of these 'guests' is treacherous--”

“Yu, my only intention is to share that knowledge,” Egeria said as calmly as possible. Malek was as surprised as his host was that with all things considered about Goa'uld and their pride, she had not even sent her Jaffa to drag the insolent and insulting system lord away. However, all thoughts of that was quickly wiped away as he saw a smile full of teeth appear upon Egeria's expression – a far cry from anything that he had seen before from her. “However, you are my guest here, milord. Had I wanted you dead, you would have never made it to here.”

Far be it from the expected outrage and anger that he thought the system lords present would display by immediately getting up and stalking away, none of those sitting around the table moved. Surprisingly, it was Ba'al who spoke up after a very uncomfortable silence stretched between all of them, saying, “Perhaps we should adjourn for now. Cooler heads in this would be more conducive – after all, your springing of these infamous and clearly not dead children of yours is still something to behold, Egeria.”

There was something in Ba'al's eyes that made Malek uneasy, but before any of the other system lords could object or agree, Egeria stood up and gave a gracious nod towards the system lord. “I agree. My servants have prepared a grand feast for you.” She extended a hand towards the far side of the hall, just as human slaves, dressed quite scantily poured out of it. There were collars of gold wrapped around all of the slaves' necks as they stood with their heads bowed near the far entrance, ready to serve. “Please refresh yourselves.”

There were countless of times in which he, along with his friends had undertaken mission after mission in which they had to mimic the actions of minor system lords with barely any currency in raw materials or slave help. He remembered seeing many of the slaves in abusive conditions but in his capacity to smuggle out information, he was unable to help or do much to alleviate their horrible life. One never knew if the slave encountered was truly at wit's end or was manipulated to tell whatever Jaffa or system lord the slave served about others.

Disgust filled him for thinking that Egeria, for all of her kindness towards all of them, was different from the other system lords in this reality. Throughout the week he and his friends had been here, he had not seen one hair or hide of a servant – only Egeria's children or Jaffa. This sudden show of slaves, dressed in very suggestive clothing that clearly indicated to the other system lords that Egeria was willing to let them do whatever they wanted with the slaves while at their 'welcoming feast', sickened him.

He glanced over to see there was a clear expression of utter disgust from Freya. Surprisingly though, there was absolutely no expression from Aldwin and he briefly wondered if Asteria had taken over to keep whatever Aldwin was feeling off of his face. He knew that he himself had curled his lips back slightly – the only sign of his own regret for thinking that Egeria here was the compassionate Goa'uld queen he thought she was. On Egeria's children though, there was no expression of any sort from any of them.

The moment was broken when Set was the first to rise, followed by the others. Malek and his friends rose as well, but as Egeria stepped away, the three of them were prevented from following when Martouf gestured for them to stay. As the system lords drifted away from the circular table, a couple of the lo'tars glanced back towards them before stepping up to attend to their masters and mistresses. He saw Martouf give a nod towards Jolinar, who was dutifully following Egeria before turning back towards them.

“I believe it may be better if the three of you were not to attend the welcoming feast,” Martouf said, clasping his hands together.

“I heartily agree,” Freya immediately answered, looking quite relieved.

“If you would please, I shall escort you back to your rooms and then fetch some refreshments for you. I shall also fetch you once the summit is to resume. Please believe me when I say that Egeria will not discuss anything with regards to your lives or predicament during the feast.”

With his trust, or rather, his faith in Egeria shaken, along with his anger building at what Aldwin had caused, Malek found that he could not speak without immediately lashing out in anger. Even his host was frustrated and annoyed. It was Freya who came to the rescue by saying, “We understand and would gladly welcome the respite.”

As she took the lead, following Martouf out of the hall, he found that he could not stand to walk side-by-side or even behind Aldwin and immediately followed Freya. It was a tense, silent walk to where they were quartered, but rather than go into their individual rooms, they silently decided to stop and stay in one of the three rooms – his room. With another reassurance that he would return soon with some refreshments, Martouf left.

“What the hell was that?!” Malek demanded as soon as the door closed. It was only because his host had strenuously cautioned against any rash actions that he had not picked Aldwin up by the front of his outfit and immediately slammed him into the wall. He instead, had rounded upon him, face-to-face, noses not even a finger-length away. Infuriating him even further was the fact that there was still a blank look upon his friend's face. “You lied! You lied to _us_! I thought we agreed not to give information such as that! We were supposed to--”

He felt a hand upon his chest, propelling him back. Anise, who had taken over from her host, had separated them as she chided, “Stop it, Malek!” At the urging of his host, he remained where he was, but glared at Aldwin as Anise turned her attention to Aldwin, saying, “Aldwin please... would you please explain why you did not think to tell us you were going to tell Egeria about the Eye of Ra?”

“Because she needed something concrete, something to give to the system lords other than naquadah resources,” Aldwin said after a moment, looking away as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Ba'al... neither of you know him as I did,” he continued in a quieter tone. “He would have been the most logical choice for Ra to go to for a spy network after Egeria left. He would have had nearly the same amount, if not more information about Anubis' operations at this point. I didn't think Ra would have thought of the same idea to use for the Eye of Ra, but they also needed to see--”

There was a knock at the door, causing Aldwin to fall silent. Malek was still a little too incensed to answer, and thus it was Anise who said, “Yes?”

“May I enter?” Egeria's slightly muffled voice asked.

“Please do,” Anise answered, sounding a little more than relieved.

Egeria entered in a graceful manner, but before any of them could ask, she said, “Ra and the others seem amenable to reintroducing the alliance. Though I do have real concerns to address with all of you, my entering of this room has been witnessed by at least Set's and Yu's lo'tars. It should reinforce the perception and accusation that Yu has put forth.”

“Isn't that a bit dangerous, Egeria?” Aldwin asked, unfolding his arms and letting them hang loosely by his side.

“Yes, but Yu has always been an influential adviser of sorts to Ra, due to his age and knowledge that he has gathered during the many times he has fought against Anubis. He is second to Ra in the many times he has fought against Anubis's forces, managing to prevail in most instances to flee and survive to bring fresh data and possible tactics. He is also inadvertently our ally in getting Ra to hopefully tell us where we can find a similar Atanik device to transport all of you back to your dimension.”

Pushing aside the fact that his assumption of Egeria being benevolent was his own fault, a sudden thought struck Malek as he frowned slightly and asked, “Do any of you know what Anubis is?”

Egeria blinked in confusion before asking, “What... he is? He is Goa'uld such as we all are--”

“He is... or was an ascended being, Egeria,” he said, shaking his head slightly as he interrupted her. “Someone who has walked among the Ancients.”

“Ancients?”

“The Ancients were the builders of the chappa'ai,” Anise supplied, “There were writings on the walls in Ancient where we found the device on the planet. If Ra's people are really Ataniks and you yourself have said that their wielding of more advanced technology have stemmed the tide of Anubis' conquering, then...”

“The weapon at Dakara!” Aldwin suddenly said, looking slightly horrified. Malek was not ready to forgive him for what he had done, but he was willing to put aside his anger for the moment and try to work with him in whatever idea seemed to have seized him.

“Yes,” Anise answered, nodding quite vigorously. “According to the reports that the High Council received, Anubis did not bother activating it until the Replicators were poised to take over the galaxy.”

“And even then, Ba'al took his time getting there so that--”

“If it was calibrated to get rid of all the Replicators, what is to say that it cannot be calibrated to specifically kill Anubis?” Anise suggested, looking quite enthusiastic.

Malek remained silent – while he and his team had been incommunicado during the Replicators' sudden appearance and expansion, he had been briefed in the aftermath of it as to what had happened. It was during that time that he and his team had been destroying more of Ba'al's resources and eventually forcing the system lord to appear with Leto and her prototype replacement for the destroyed Eye of Ra.

“Dakara is in the heart of Anubis' territory,” Egeria spoke up. “If the planet does have this kind of weapon that you speak of, then why has he not used it yet to purge all life and start anew?”

The three of them looked at each other in silence for a moment, though Malek was slightly surprised that Aldwin, for all that he had done thus far in clandestinely giving Egeria information, did not want to volunteer this particular knowledge. Finally, it was Anise who said, “According to allies of ours, he did not retain full knowledge of the Ancients. He was banished from them, but knew enough to be a threat upon our galaxy. The weapon at Dakara was only used as a last resort because of the scourge known as the Replicators. It required very precise knowledge and calibration of the weapon to not kill all sentient life except for the Replicators, and it may be that your Anubis does not have the knowledge. If my theory is correct, then the Ataniks may be able to read Ancient and will be able to calibrate the weapon as needed.”

“Then what is to stop Ra from doing the same to everyone who is not an Atanik?”

“Nothing,” Malek spoke up as he seized upon an idea that Alexei had floated into their shared space, “except for a threat that I believe he will not be able to ignore.”

It was risky that they attempt this, but there was no other way for all of them to secure passage home. From the get-go, Malek had been sure that bargaining for passage would not be easy – and with Aldwin's reckless words earlier to the system lords, this was now the price they had to pay. With Yu influencing Ra's decision, but Ra's greed for knowledge hampering that effort, along with Egeria's want to be re-accepted, the three of them were essentially bargaining chips. This would also most likely be the fastest way to get back to their reality, for he suddenly found himself not wanting to stay even a second longer; with a cold dousing having been poured upon him with the appearance of the slaves.

“Egeria,” he began, turning slightly to face the queen. “If you would allow me to conduct the negotiation when we resume talks, I believe that since my host is unrecognizable to the others and they do not know who I am, I would have a better chance of success than either Aldwin or Freya. It seems that there are too many old biases among all of you at the moment that cannot be overcome.” He would have to talk to Aldwin later about the first attempt at bargaining, but right now, with a certain way to possibly defeat Anubis that they could give the others, their demand for passage home needed to come from them, not by proxy.

“Very well, then,” the queen said after a moment of thought and contemplation. “However, I do caution you that if you give them this information about Dakara, there is more certainty that your safety will not be guaranteed, even if Ra agrees to and finds a similar device to transport you home. Yu has already poisoned his mind. The others may follow suit, and there may be attempts to abduct any of you after this to siphon more knowledge out. I may not be able to protect you.”

“This is our choice, Egeria,” Anise stated, glancing at both him and Aldwin, though to his slight petty satisfaction, Aldwin looked away for a moment as if in shame for what he had secretly done.

He could feel a chided admonishment from his host, but ignored it. His friend's behavior as of late, starting from before they had gone off-world, and up until now, was different from what he remembered of him. He knew and understood that blending between hosts and symbiotes did change personalities, but it was not usually in such a drastic fashion such as what he had witnessed Aldwin becoming – or had become.

“This must come from us,” he continued, pushing his thoughts to the side, “but please, rest assure, Egeria, a war of any sort between you and the other system lords at the table is not what we intend to do. You have given us safe haven and kind hospitality. We will not forget that.”

~◊~

_Later..._

 

The summit did not resume until late in the day, and it seemed that the hours that passed for the system lords had calmed them down enough. Or at least enough that even Yu looked a little less outraged and disgruntled with the appearance of the three of them – still armed as they had been. None of them knew what had been discussed or said during the feast, but in the hours that passed, Malek, Aldwin, and Freya had used that time to truly discuss what they were to present about Dakara and all of the information behind it when asked.

Nothing was said about Aldwin's giving of the information about the Eye of Ra to Egeria, but Malek knew that that was something he needed to discuss at a later time and in private. For now, for the fractures they had accidentally shown in front of the system lords, they had to repair that show a united front. Any fractures would be viciously exploited, as shown in the first part of the summit.

“There is a weapon that Anubis tried to use in our dimension,” Malek began, standing up and taking a step back from the table.

While it was highly uncommon for him to do so, even in a Tok'ra briefing, he found his host's suggestion to do such a thing at this very moment a brilliant idea. It would both help unsettle the system lords some more, while alienating the three to further cause the system lords to want to send them back. The system lords didn't know who he was, and his mannerisms did not match any of the usual Goa'uld ones – it was instead, inclusive. Which he knew for sure, repulsed most, if not all of them.

He took a deliberate step towards Egeria's side and reached over to tap a couple of inlaid buttons on the table to zoom to a particular solar system within Anubis' domain. The queen had been correct – Dakara was in the heart of the system lord's empire, and it would be virtual suicide to try to take it from him. But it was worth a shot.

“Dakara,” he said, stepping back and beginning his long circular journey around the perimeter of table, managing to catch Martouf's puzzled look that slid into slight amusement, along with a flash of Jolinar's long-suffering look. As for the rest of Egeria's children, they remained in a state of slightly confused looks that were either directed at him or their queen.

“There is a weapon there, capable of destroying or creating all life,” he continued to say. “It can be accessed by Anubis and manipulated by him. However, since it seems that he is content on conquering and making all of those under him suffer, he has not used it yet. I believe that you, Ra, and your host's race can possibly use this to kill only him.”

At the mention of the system lord by name, several accusative and inquisitive eyes turned to the cat-like system lord. However, rather than lose his cool like he had earlier when Aldwin had essentially disparaged him, Ra asked, “How do you expect us to use such a weapon that Anubis can only use? Did not Egeria tell you that he is in possession of technology and techniques that are unknown to us?”

Malek stopped where he was, quite well aware that he was standing behind the chairs of Ba'al and Leto – deliberate on his part. He clasped his arms behind his back and gave Ra a mirthless smile. “Unknown to most of the other Goa'uld, but not to your hosts. You must have countless of centuries of sifting through memories and knowledge from them to know what Anubis actually is. And of why only your host's race is capable of stemming the tide for how many centuries was it now... twenty-three?”

“What is the meaning of this?!” Ba'al demanded, fist landing upon the table, almost getting up from where he was sitting. “What is this Goa'uld saying, Ra?”

“Anubis is an Ancient,” Malek stated before the system lord could answer, trying his best to ignore the 'Goa'uld' remark. “He is a part of the race that built the chappa'ai.” While not quite true about Anubis actually being one of the Ancients, in a way it was true. But, the other system lords did not need to know that detail. “And the Ataniks, Ra's host's race, are capable of controlling or manipulating some of the more tangible devices that that race left. Such as the weapon at Dakara.”

Before a clamor could break out between those at the table, Ra suddenly got up, but Malek held himself steady, as his host jumped in fright within their shared space. The cat-like system lord approached, but strangely enough, Ra's lo'tar did not move from where he was. Malek refused to give in to the urge to shrink back as he saw just how sharp the claws upon Ra's paws were and just how shrewd of a look the system lord was giving him as he approached. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see both Aldwin and Freya, along with Egeria start to rise up from their seats in grave concern, but waved his hand towards Jolinar to stop the three.

He refocused his attention back on Ra, drawing upon the courage of his memories to stand in the face of the unknown. The system lord invaded his personal space and stopped uncomfortably close to him. Cat-like eyes stared at his own, with lips curled slightly back to show razor-sharp teeth that could tear his throat out with one lunge and bite. Still, Malek did not flinch even as the hot breath of the system lord blew across his face and stayed as he was, hands still clasped behind him.

“Is this how your galaxy defeated Anubis, Goa'uld?” the system lord hissed.

“No,” he answered. “We used the weapon to purge another lifeform. His defeat was through other means that you do not posses here, due to some differences that Egeria has already told us about.”

The strange smile that Ra had upon his face got wider before the system lord purred, “Interesting proposal you have made, Goa'uld. And a most viable one. However, what are you holding back in exchange for passage to your dimension?”

“So there is a device that can transport us back?” he asked instead of directly answering the question, sensing that now that he had the system lord's full attention, he would be able to attain a better deal. A part of him was still in disbelief that he was _negotiating_ with Ra of all system lords.

“Yes,” Ra answered. “We may come to an agreement, but your proposal to use the weapon at Dakara comes at a very high price. I am familiar with the transportation device you used, for we have used it ourselves many times. It is on Tau'ri.”

The system lord's smile got wider as he stepped back and Malek mentally frowned. Tau'ri, or Earth, had been Ra's stronghold, but was now the most heavily guarded planet in Anubis' domain. His gamble had been to threaten Ra and the others into complying, but his attempt to siphon information as to the whereabouts of the device had instead drawn him into a trap. He had fallen for Ra's gambit--

_**We can still beat him at this negotiation**_ **,** his host said before outlining the steps he needed to take. They could still use the threat, but they would definitely have to promise something that they didn't know if they could keep. It was risky, but considering most of the planetary systems were kept in the same conditions, even though the inhabitants were not, it was doable.

Bolstered by confidence, Malek refocused his attention on Ra and said, “You have Dakara. Give us the device, intact, and I will give you knowledge on how to blow up even a moon such as Netu.”

“Impossible,” Yu stated.

“It is not,” Leto spoke up, surprising everyone as both Malek and Ra glanced over to see her turn slightly to face Yu before glancing over towards Ra. “Ba'al and I have been attempting to develop such high-yield weapons to implant within and destroy his ships. However, it is clear that this Goa'uld here and his 'friends'--” she glanced over towards Freya and Aldwin before returning her attention to the system lord “--have discovered the means to. Might I suggest accepting this offer? After all, Abydos is the gateway to Tau'ri and if this weapon on Dakara cannot be used, we will need to use this planet as a launch point to directly attack him. If we are to take it and kill Anubis on Tau'ri, we will need to rid ourselves of as many of his ships as possible first.”

“And even if he is killed by this weapon on Dakara, his allies still remain. We will need to crush them all in a decisive manner,” Set spoke up.

Malek could see that Ra was seriously considering the others' words, even though his expression was quite unreadable. It was the gleam in the cat-like eyes that gave away his thought process. After a moment, the system lord took a step back and turned his attention to Egeria, giving her a rather graceful nod. “I commend you, Egeria. You have played this extremely well. It seems that we have reached an accord, but as reassurance for this knowledge that was presented--”

“No,” Egeria interrupted, standing up, clasping her hands in front of her. “Not one of my children or these three go with you. Dakara will already be dangerous. Tau'ri even more so. A strike at Tau'ri, regardless of the outcome at Dakara is necessary, and I will need all of my remaining children and these three to ensure that that strike is successful. Please also have your lo'tar stay here as my guest, Ra. After all, we shall need his knowledge of Tau'ri to begin planning the eventual attack.”

He could see that the system lord was not happy with how the situation was turning out for him. Ra's greed for knowledge and weapons had made him overstep his bounds, and now he was at the mercy of a system lord that he had broken ties with. His position was quite precarious, and if there was a misstep now, then Ra's standing among the system lords still opposing Anubis would tumble.

It was a far cry from the Ra he remembered – the arrogant, all-powerful, and terrifying system lord who ruled the galaxy unchallenged. That is, until a small group of explorers had stumbled into the chappa'ai one day, instigated a successful rebellion, and blew him up. This Ra was overextended: relying on technology that only his host race could use; and a handful of allies who were desperate enough to remain free to side with him, but still petty enough to break alliances between each other.

Aldwin's angry words to the system lords earlier were quite correct. They were pathetic, and this summit shined an ugly light upon it. The question now was would they swallow their pride and arrogance to come together and strike? At that line of thought, he could not help but force a small amount of bile back down. It was a mad galaxy for him to even be thinking of things like that, and his host was echoing the same sentiment.

_**This is the last time we ever venture out into a dig site,**_ his host muttered to him. _**Those SG teams can have all the fun they want in being transported to other dimensions and the like**._

“Agreed,” Ra said at last, stepping away and returning to his seat.

Malek did the same and as he took his seat, the other system lords echoed the agreement. The summit was not yet done for there were many other things the system lords needed to discuss such as the current positioning and strength of Anubis and his allies' forces. However, the three of them had at least secured a real and possible way back to their reality. The trick now, was to ensure that none of the system lords, especially Ra was double-crossing them with a false promise.

~◊~

_Back in the original reality...Stargate Command, Earth_

 

“You know, I don't see why we have to invite the Tok'ra to join us at this summit,” Jack said as he looked around the briefing table. “I mean, they haven't even lifted much of a hand to help us with the whole Ori thing and only responded when we told them we wanted to switch out Ba'al in Adria.”

Daniel let out as much of a patient sigh as he could muster as Teal'c did not even twitch an eyebrow at their former team leader and base commander's comment. Cameron merely shrugged while Vala actually had to gal to shake her head in agreement with Jack's words. Sam, connected via this briefing by video feed, also said nothing though there was concern in her eyes.

“Jack, we need all major powers there,” he said at last when it looked like General Landry was not going to intervene in the potential argument that was about to play out. “If the Nox, Asgardians, and Jaffa Nation gets to send two representatives, the Tok'ra also gets to send two.”

“But they're not a major power! They've got like, what, fifty, sixty of them snakeheads left alive?”

“Daniel Jackson,” Teal'c finally spoke up, “by your admission, all major powers are invited to send two representatives, are they not? Then why has not an invitation been extended to the Lucian Alliance?”

“Oh hell no,” Cameron spoke up, protesting, “we are _not_ allowing them to join us at this summit. They already hate our guts and what is to say that they won't try to sabotage this summit?”

“Precisely,” Jack said, leaning back slightly. “The Tok'ra probably won't sabotage the meeting, but like the Lucian Alliance, they do not have anything significant to contribute.”

“Well, didn't the Tok'ra provide us with a lot of reports on where the Ori have conquered places?” Vala asked before Sam could get a word in. “They also did agree to that plan to try to implant Adria with a Tok'ra symbiote instead of Ba'al.”

“Wait, I thought you were on my side,” Jack groused. “And if I remember, they failed in that Ba'al plan, and now Adria is ascended.”

Vala merely gave Jack a cheeky grin as Daniel sighed and shook his head in exasperation. “Guys, we all know that the Lucian Alliance doesn't want anything to do with the SGC. With the Goa'uld now all gone, they're only looking to profit from our fight against the Ori. If we get anything out of the summit, we can then use it to leverage any negotiations we need to get them on our side, but not before. The Tok'ra have the best network in place to not only keep an eye on them, but also the Ori. They've helped us tremendously during our fight against the system lords, and I think they deserve at least a say in what goes down in this summit.”

“Yeah, but how many system lords did they take out even after they became our allies?” Jack countered. “Zero, zip, nada! We had to kill Apophis, Hathor, Nirrti, and others by ourselves...except for Anubis... That point goes to the Ancients.”

“Um,” Vala began, raising a hand as she placed it back down before leaning forward. “Can we count Ba'al as a confirmed kill for them?”

“Yeah, but that's only one,” Jack answered.

“Well, after you guys left their homeworld last month after Ba'al's execution, Daniel and I learned a few things about them,” Vala said. “We should also count Tanith and Leto among the heads they've knocked off. And Osiris...and Qetesh. That's what... five so far? Then you have that Tok'ra, what's his name... Malek, whom Garshaw and a few others confirmed to have killed five others, including Amaterasu.”

“Okay, okay, I see your point,” Jack interrupted, holding up his hands to stop Vala from listening any more dead system lords. “Fine, they got that whole galactic cloak and dagger thing down and they have done some damage to the system lords. I get that, and we'll extend them an invitation, but any funny business between the Jaffa and Tok'ra, like what happened when the Ashrak at the former Alpha Site tried to screw with us, and they're getting the boot from the bandwagon.”

“Thank you,” Daniel said, mentally sighing with relief.

“All right then,” General Landry said as they all pushed their chairs back while Sam signed off from video conferencing. “You leave for the Tok'ra homeworld in eighteen hours. Bring all necessary materials needed to brief their Council, but let them know that we do not need an answer as to who their representatives will be until we get closer to the summit.”

“General, may I also accompany Daniel?” Vala asked. “I would like to check upon the progress of John's recovery.”

“John?” Landry questioned, quite puzzled.

“Ba'al's former host,” Daniel clarified. “We named him John Doe for now, since he's still not quite coherent yet and doesn't remember his name.”

“Okay. You're both cleared to go.”

 

~*~*~*~

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

 

“Asteria thinks you're a hypocrite for giving Ra and the others a way to make naquadah-enhanced explosives.”

Malek didn't look up from his perusal of the various habitable systems controlled by Anubis, and chose to remain silent as he heard Aldwin shift slightly in his seat beside him. It was midday on this second day of negotiations and integration of Egeria and her forces back into the fold of Ra and his alliance. Though for now, it seemed that everything that had to be said and worked out was completed. Ra, Set, and Yu had left only a few minutes ago, and both Egeria and Jolinar at her side had accompanied the three system lords to see them off in their transports.

As promised, Ra's lo'tar had remained, and was now engaged in a discussion a little further away from the circular table with both Freya and surprisingly, Martouf. Malek could only assume that the three were discussing translations or something with regard to the device – after all, there were still many quantities about the device, and the writing in Ancient carved along the walls back at the ziggurat that they didn't understand. He was just surprised that Martouf had found the discussion interesting, though it didn't escape his notice as to the slightly protective angle Martouf was standing at – as if he were protecting Freya from Ra's lo'tar.

_**If you remember Egeria telling us, it was Martouf and Lantash who discovered that this reality's Freya and Anise was a za'tarc... and that they killed her**_ , his host gently reminded him. _**There is also Freya's reaction to what happened to our reality's Martouf and Lantash. You know as well as I that she still blames herself for their death – for not discovering their changed state earlier**_.

_**But this is a place that is full of lies buried within the facade of kindness**_ , he answered.

“She thinks what you're doing is reckless. Even more than what I gave to Egeria to try to help her in the opening of this summit--” Aldwin continued in a quite, low tone, bringing him out of his conversation with his host.

“And what do you think?” he quietly asked, not even bothering to glance over as he kept his eyes on the maps in front of him. After yesterday's sessions, the three of them had been escorted back to their rooms by Martouf, but Aldwin had immediately entered his own room, clearly indicating that he did not want to talk to anyone. Both Freya and Anise had spent a few minutes chiding him, Malek, about his decision to share technology before they too retired for the night. There was nothing he knew that he could say that would justify what he had said to the system lords. He had fallen into Ra's trap, and a gamble was the only way out.

“Does it matter what I think?” Aldwin answered as Malek surreptitiously glanced over to see him pull up a set of maps to peruse.

Malek remained silent, knowing that there was more to that answer that his friend wanted to say, but again, none of them could show any sign of division or the cracks that had dangerously appeared yesterday. Qetesh, lounging in her seat and sipping something in her left hand while her right hand held a datapad of sorts that held her attention, was still present. As was Ba'al and Leto, both of whom were still sitting where they had been during the summit, but had projected up a screen of a few star systems and seemed to be in deep discussion. A few of Egeria's children were still around, as were the Jaffa, but none of them had questioned as to why Qetesh, Ba'al, and Leto had remained when the other three system lords had already taken their leave.

“Trusting and thinking this reality's Egeria was as benevolent as our queen was a mistake,” he said after a moment, keeping his tone as low as possible, “but--”

“What do you search for?” Qetesh's sudden and unexpectedly demanding question caused both of them, along with the others, including Freya, Martouf, and Ra's lo'tar, to look up. Belatedly, Malek realized that the system lord's question was directed at both him and Aldwin.

Before either he or Aldwin could answer that question, it was Leto who jumped in and demanded, “Why do you stay, Qetesh? Lord Ba'al and I have a reason for staying, yet you... who do not have any experience in this espionage business, why do you stay?”

A sly smile seemed to slither up Qetesh's lips as Malek saw the system lord place her drink down on the table before hooking the datapad to a carrier at her side. She then seemingly flounced up from where she had been sitting and strode over towards the two system lords. “My, my, do I detect a hint of possessiveness--”

“My Queen,” Ra's lo'tar interrupted, taking a step out from the inclusive discussion he (at least Malek thought the lo'tar was male for there was nothing to discern male from female other than his assumption of voice) had been having. “If you would forgive this interruption, but Supreme Lord Ra has instructed me to remind you--”

“I know full well what my lord wants done, _slave_ ,” Qetesh snapped as she stopped her approach and whirled around to face the lo'tar. Both Ba'al and Leto had already stood up, eyes narrowed and very wary. With her anger redirected at the lo'tar, she hissed, “And you best remember to address me in proper form. Not this--” she gestured with a dismissive hand up and down towards the lo'tar that seemed to match the disgust upon her face “--facade of an ugly body that is used to scare others.”

Malek could not help but frown slightly in puzzlement as to what the system lord meant, but received his answer not a moment later. The lo'tar's face, along with his cat-like body and fur seemingly melted into its skin. Or rather, it looked as if an egg had been cracked over the creature's head and was slowly trickling down. The Atanik's fur was quickly receding and in its place, a more human-like shape was taking form. The transformation lasted all of a few seconds, but where there had been a cat-like creature was now a human and just a half-head shorter than Martouf. Tousled brown hair along with a strong, angular jaw, prominent cheekbones, and striking blue eyes that were almost like the color of a zat'nik'tel's bolts graced the head of the human. The human who stood before them was also clothed in a skin-tight, contoured grey bodysuit.

“Much better,” Qetesh purred, giving the Atanik-turned-human lo'tar who had immediately bowed his head in apology, a lascivious smile. “Now... since it seems that Egeria's guests are unwilling to help, perhaps it is time I carry out my lord's will. Escort me back to my transport. I wish not to walk to stare upon this filth--” she gestured towards her own lo'tar who was still bowed quite deeply “--until I have to.”

The words were meant to be goading, to draw any of them out to ask her what Ra's orders to Qetesh were. However, considering that Ra was willing to work with all of them and allowed Egeria back into the fold, Malek knew that the orders were of no consequence to them. Thus he remained silent, as did Aldwin and Freya. The others still in this hall were also silent – all of them seemingly quite well versed in this rather pathetic attempt at a ploy to extract information.

“Perhaps we may escort you back to your transport, Queen Consort,” Egeria spoke up from the entrance to the hall, with Jolinar standing protectively at her shadow. “After all, there is much that I need to discuss with you as well.”

Seeing that she had no other choice but to save face, for it seemed that even as Queen Consort, she did not wield the power, command, or respect of allied system lords as Malek had thought she would have, Qetesh gave a rather dramatic sigh. It was an interesting turn of events, for he knew that in their reality, none of the system lords here would have ever shown or stumbled upon weakness and not pounced. Ba'al and Leto hadn't even deigned to acknowledge the blunder and merely sat back down as the Queen Consort stepped away and approached Egeria.

After Egeria, Jolinar, Qetesh, and Qetesh's lo'tar disappeared, it was Leto who spoke up, saying, “Egeria speaks the truth about these three travelers.”

“She has always been telling the truth, Leto,” Martouf immediately fired back, looking quite incensed.

However, Leto looked unruffled by the anger displayed and merely weaved her hands together, resting her elbows on the table – a most human of things to do, considering that Malek remembered seeing her host, Ailin, do that countless of times in Council meetings. It was Ba'al's mirrored actions that surprised him as well, but he focused his attention back on Leto as she turned her piercing gaze onto them and asked, “Are the Ataniks dead in your reality?”

“Y-yes,” Freya spoke up, looking back and forth between the transformed Atanik, who still remained where he was with his head bowed in submission, and Leto. “They were wiped out long ago by a system lord who no longer exists. We know not how they were eradicated.”

“Ah, then Ra in your reality is not Atanik and is human?” Ba'al asked.

“Yes,” Malek spoke up, “and it was he who gave us the knowledge to build explosives that would take out a moon.” It was a bald-faced lie if there ever was one, but it wasn't also completely untrue. According to what the Council had told them of what SG-1 had said how they defeated Ra, Ra of their reality had been the first one who enhanced a simple thermonuclear bomb with naquadah. The system lord just had the fortunate accident of not being far away enough from Abydos to nullify the transport rings.

Ba'al barked in laughter before saying, “You mistake my contempt for Ra for rebelliousness, Goa'uld. I do not seek the destruction of Ra. I seek a host similar to Ra, and it was I who helped this lo'tar of his--” the system lord gestured to the still passive, human-formed lo'tar “--retrieve the body or rather, pieces, of Egeria's most precious ally from Nirrti's lair. The Atanik capability to transform from a human form to an even more deadlier form is quite remarkable... but I digress.”

“Pardon me, but since we shall all be working together, what should we call you, Atanik?” Freya said, stretching out a hand towards the Atanik, as soon as Ba'al fell silent. Malek did not miss the look of disgust that flitted through the system lord's expression. He could only assume that it had to do with the fact that Freya retained control, or the fact that Ba'al treated the Atanik with contempt even though it was clear that the system lord had eyed the Atanik as a potential new host to take from underneath Ra's eyes.

“What is this?” Ba'al interrupted before the Atanik could answer. “We do not need to know this slave's name. It is here only to ensure that an accurate accounting of Tau'ri is taken into consideration. What kind of Goa'uld has Ra in your reality allowed you to become?”

“The perfect infiltrators, Lord Ba'al,” Leto said, unfolding her hands and gesturing towards them. “Their Ra has allowed this to happen, and in turn, they have defeated Anubis and most likely countless of other system lords. If we are to consider a different kind of warfare to strike at Anubis other than throwing ships and Jaffa at him, perhaps we should start adopting some of their tactics.”

The expected comment on how absurd of an idea it was never came out of Ba'al's lips, but there was a furrow upon his forehead as the theoretical gears in the Goa'uld's head spun. “Fine,” the system lord said after a moment as he set his arms down onto the table and began to drum his fingers upon the table. Again, it was such a human thing to do that Malek really was not sure what to make of it – neither did his host. “What is your name, Atanik, in your natural form?”

“A-Akesios, milord,” the Atanik said, looking quite unsure and frightened as his eyes looked back and forth between Freya and Ba'al.

“And your name in the human form?” the system lord impatiently asked.

“Apollo, milord.”

“While we are naming names, perhaps we should also have yours, Goa'uld,” Leto spoke up, giving Malek a very pointed look. “After all, being one that has such dangerous knowledge gifted from your reality's Ra, you must have a name as well.”

Summoning as much courage as he could that was reinforced by the warmth of his host's presence in their shared space, he looked at her squarely in the eyes and said, “I am Malek of Ichterus.”

~◊~

_Meanwhile, in the original reality at the Tok'ra homeworld..._

 

Daniel was not the only one to look up as a rather harried-looking Tok'ra dashed into the room where he along with a few others of the Council were discussing details pertaining to the upcoming summit. The look upon the Tok'ra's face melted into a apologetic one before she approached Garshaw and leaned down to whisper in her ear before pressing a small datapad into her hands. A concerned look flitted across the former High Councilor's face before he saw her curtly nod and whisper a few unheard words back to the Tok'ra. As the Tok'ra left, he saw Garshaw glance down at the datapad before an even deeper frown graced her face.

“Is something the matter?” he asked, wondering if it was something that he or Earth in general could help with. Though the Tok'ra were quite prideful in their ways and rarely asked for help, since the beginning of the Ori invasion, that pride had diminished somewhat. The exchange of information between them and Earth was more frequent now, and now with the threats in both the Pegasus Galaxy and this one pressing upon them with greater force than the Goa'uld had ever done, stronger ties were needed.

“We had a collapse of a section of ruins on an Atanik planet a few days ago. A few of our people were in that section. We have finally cleared it out, but they are missing... and where they had been, we found this,” Garshaw said, passing the datapad across the table to him.

He took it and peered at it, but even before his eyes had made it half-way down the screen, he looked up and said, “This is Ancient.”

“Yes,” Garshaw said as everyone's attention around the table was drawn towards them.

“What is Ancient writing doing on an Atanik planet?”

“Your leaders' proposal for this summit will take time to debate and discuss amongst the Council, Dr. Jackson,” Garshaw said instead of answering his question. “Since you have said that we have some time before an answer is needed, we would be grateful if you can help us decipher this. Up until her disappearance, we have the feed from Anise's datapad linked to other excavation members' datapads. We hope that it will have something that would help in the decoding of this wall and what caused her and two others with her to disappear.”

“Anise?”

Daniel looked over to see that Agent Gant, formerly of the CIA before being recruited into SG-15, lean forward slightly, with her expression that of concern. He had heard that after the Ashrak debacle on the former Alpha Site, she had been released from SGC duties to pursue so-called 'freelance' work with a Tok'ra team. He didn't know what she had done during her years with the Tok'ra team, but once the Goa'uld were defeated, she had returned to the fold of the SGC and was now attached to teams or individuals such as he, whenever needed. Not that he needed a bodyguard at the moment, but it seemed that General Landry allowed her to accompany him specifically because of her relationship to the Tok'ra.

“Anise was heading the expedition upon the planet where we recovered our new queen,” Garshaw supplied. “We were hoping that perhaps other weapons or items could be found on the planet to help us combat the Ori.”

“We'll help you,” he said, looking back towards Garshaw and nodding. “Though--”

“Has Malek been informed of Anise's disappearance?” Gant interrupted. “Because I was hoping that he, along with Xau and Risune could assist me with a specific type of perimeter check around this ruin that we used to do.”

There was a hesitant look upon Garshaw's face, which made Daniel worry. “Unfortunately, the others who disappeared with Anise are Malek and Aldwin. But, I shall call for Xau and Risune to assist you.”

~◊~

_Later and back in the alternate reality..._

 

_**She is not our Leto, Malek.** _

He was startled out of his drifting thoughts with his host's words as he blinked and realized that he had been staring at the map for a particular star system for a while. Said system was the place where he and his team had finally cornered Leto before capturing her. It was quite late at night, but he wasn't tired yet and it seemed that neither was his host. Pushing his chair back from the desk, he got up and walked away from the datapad that Martouf had generously provided to him upon his request.

His search for star systems within Anubis' domain had initially been to see if there were any other planets with resources they could use to further their agenda in getting the Goa'uld, or specifically Ra to ensure that his promise to help them was genuine. Whether the assault on Dakara would work or not, it seemed that the other system lords, especially Ba'al, were quite savvy enough to know that even if Anubis fell, his followers were still quite numerous. But could he even trust any of them?

 

_There were no reactions from either Leto or Ba'al at all at the announcing of his name. Malek didn't know whether or not to be unnerved or relieved. Perhaps Egeria's words to him of the relationship that this reality's Leto had with this reality's Malek, along with their hosts was false. Perhaps it was another lie that he had brought into because of his initial assumption that Egeria was as kind and as caring as the queen he had thought her to be._

“ _Well, now that we know who everyone is, we can now dispense with these inane pleasantries,” Ba'al said, breaking the silence. “There is still the matter of integrating my spies with those of Egeria's, but that is not a matter to discuss with all of you.” The Goa'uld smirked as he said, “Since I am most welcomed in Egeria's assistance again, ships and troops can be provided from my fleets, should you need to find resources to assist you in building your explosive.”_

“ _Why?”_

_The smirk upon Ba'al's expression held up for a second before faltering for a quick moment under the unwavering glare that Aldwin had leveled upon the system lord. There was a coldness in the single question that Malek was not entirely sure that came from the host. The demeanor in which Aldwin leaned forward and had placed his arms on the table, focusing squarely on Ba'al was something he had never seen him do before. He wondered if Asteria had taken partial control, after all, she most likely had memories of Ba'al and of the schemes he conducted well before the inception of the Tok'ra._

“ _Ah, I thought--” Ba'al began, the smirk and arrogance regained._

“ _There may not be many commonalities between our realities, Ba'al, but your 'offers' for assistance are never welcomed,” Asteria, having taken over from Aldwin, stated in a frigid tone. “These 'gifts' you had offered countless of times are--”_

“ _Not your concern, Asteria,” Egeria's commanding voice sounded from the entrance as their attention was drawn away and to her. “If you would please, Martouf, show our traveling guests back to their quarters. It has been a long day and they must be tired.”_

_Seeing that it was a blunt of a dismissal as any, Malek got up and tugged on the arm of Asteria, who was still in control and still glaring at Ba'al, to also leave. She reluctantly did so, acquiescing control back to Aldwin. As the two of them followed both Anise and Martouf out of the hall, Egeria approached the table and sat across to face both Ba'al and Leto. Jolinar had slipped in behind to guide the shape-shifted Atanik, Apollo, elsewhere for the time being._

 

Malek rubbed his eyes as he looked back towards the planetary system he had paused on. However, a knock at the door to his room drew his attention, and though he was still not used to the concept of complete privacy alone, he drew on his host's memories to help him get used to it. As uncomfortable as he was with a door shutting his room from the world, in this reality, he found himself quite glad for it. There were too many people and too many unknowns even within Egeria's compound that defied his assumptions about them.

“Enter,” he said.

The door opened, but rather than immediately stepping in, he saw Aldwin remain at the threshold. There was a melancholic air about Aldwin, which puzzled him greatly. Though he was still irritated that his friend had lied to them, a night's rest, along with the unexpected mannerisms of the system lords during the summit had cooled his anger towards Aldwin considerably. He could not completely blame him for wanting to provide information, or for his actions – the three of them had had so many prejudices and assumptions about the system lords that they had acted in the way they normally acted.

“May I enter?” Aldwin formally asked.

Malek frowned before saying, “Yes. You know that you need not ask permission...”

Aldwin stepped in far enough for the door to close, flicking a glance towards the projected star system on the datapad before refocusing his attention upon him, saying, “I cannot remain as host to Asteria.”

“Why?” he asked after a moment of stunned silence. Even his host was left speechless as they both saw that Aldwin was quite serious with his words. “If this is about what Anise, Freya, Alexei, and I did to you on that planet--”

“It's not,” Aldwin said, shaking his head. “It's not. I am grateful to all of you for saving me, but this is not related to that. Please, Malek. Please hear me out before passing judgment. I need to say this.”

“But why only Alexei and I?” he asked, slightly wary and unsure as he took a couple of steps towards the door. “Surely we should include Freya and Anise in this--”

“No!” his friend said in a painfully desperate tone.

This time, he stopped where he was, for it was a most unusual tone to hear, and it concerned him greatly. Never in the years, decades, that he had known Aldwin, had he ever heard something that raw in his voice. “Aldwin... what is happening?”

“Asteria and I... we have blended, but it is not a full blend,” Aldwin began, looking away as if ashamed. “Had we... had we not gone off world, I doubt that this would have ever manifested, but neither of us can ask for time to be rewound.” Malek heard him sigh, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them again. However, the next words Aldwin said were almost whispered that he wasn't sure if he heard correctly. “Asteria wants to stay here.”

“What?” he managed to say, completely flummoxed at what he had just thought he heard.

Aldwin turned to fully face him, eyes determined and not full of the desperation that had been in them. “She wants to stay. I want to leave. Therefore, I cannot remain host to her.”

“Surely you must be jesting--” he began, as his shock was quickly worn off by a wave of anger that suddenly rushed through him. It was amplified by his host's own shock wearing off to anger as well.

“I'm not saying this in jest, Malek,” Aldwin interrupted. “I was the one who initially proposed the Eye of Ra idea to Egeria to not only appease Asteria but to also help her readjust to a life nearly two-thousand years removed from her queen. Asteria wanted to do more than just that small of an idea--”

“Let me talk to her,” he said, closing the distance so that he was standing face-to-face with Aldwin, but not close enough to invade Aldwin's personal space. His host still had a cool enough head to caution him again to not do anything rash; after all, Aldwin did come to them for help, not to argue.

“Malek--” Aldwin began.

“I said, let me talk to her,” he repeated. “Now.”

Silently, his friend acquiesced to his request by merely bowing his head slightly to allow the symbiote to take over. Before he had a chance to say what he felt about the request and just how foolish Asteria was to think to stay in such a place as this, Asteria looked up and beat him to the punch by saying, “You are foolish to think that your giving knowledge of explosives to them will guarantee them helping you and your friends return.”

“And you are an even bigger fool to think that your staying is a sacrifice of sorts!” he snarled, even though he knew that it was not even a coherently formed argument against her. It was pitiful as arguments went, but both he and his host were now too incensed to even think straight. “They will use you until they have no need of you anymore! You will not serve your queen that you knew, Asteria! She is not the Egeria you knew--”

“And what do you know of Egeria?!” Asteria lashed out. “You know nothing of the queen who birthed you, who sacrificed everything for you, for all of her children! You may have spoken to her, adhered to her dying wish, but you know nothing of what she has done! She is as Goa'uld as she is Tok'ra in the sense that she is now. In this world, she needs our...my help, my strength, my knowledge.”

“You would give her Leto and Aldwin's knowledge as well,” he hissed. “Along with countless of other hosts that your sister--”

“They cannot hurt you or the others once you return to your reality!” Asteria said. “Egeria has no one to help her! Leto and Ailin, they cannot return to her side, not without bringing the wrath of Ba'al and his forces upon her in retaliation. But we... I cannot leave Egeria in such conditions. She needs help.”

“So you would see that an intergalactic war is started among the allies of Ra once Anubis is eradicated... or even before we leave?!” he asked, horrified that she would even consider such a thing. Were it not for the fact that the Tok'ra had done such a thing countless amounts of time before within their own dimension, it had been controlled chaos that they had sown. Malek wanted out of this dimension before such an uncontrollable thing happened here, for given the vast differences – he was quite sure that the consequences of infighting would leave at least a quarter of all habitable systems uninhabitable. Earth and Abydos most likely being two of them.

“Your giving of knowledge of a naquadah-enhanced explosive device certainly has started it,” she accused.

“Because I want them all to blow themselves to the afterlife!” he said, crossing his arms over his chest as he stepped away, disgusted at both himself and just how Asteria was pulling him back towards the dangerous line he had almost crossed during the last few years.

Silence fell over them before Asteria broke it by quietly stating, “Even Leto?”

_**She is not our Leto, Malek.** _

He closed his eyes as he unfolded his arms and buried his head into his hands for a brief moment. His host had gently reminded him of that fact, and though he knew that in a way he was still mourning for her loss, her appearance here even in a different host, was greatly affecting him. Eventually, he looked back up and over towards Asteria, saying, “She is not the Leto we knew.”

_**Or loved.** _

“And neither are you the Malek she cherished,” Asteria said, though it was more of a statement in fact than anything else uttered in an cold, almost uncaring tone.

“Your point?” he bluntly asked, letting that statement wash away the white-hot fury and molding it into a cooler one that calmed both he and his host down.

As if sensing that there was more of a calm and opportunity for a civil discussion, Asteria said, “In exchange for my intervention and prevention of any overt action that the system lords may take before you and the others leave, I wish to remain. You made yourself a target, Malek, when you told them you would give them knowledge on the explosives. You made yourself an even larger target through Ba'al specifically because you revealed your name.”

“I do not need you to protect me, Asteria,” he said, quite irritated. “Ba'al is a foe that I am quite well-versed in fighting against.”

Instead of an admonishment or even an outburst from Asteria, he instead, saw her huff before hearing her mutter, “I apologize for my words.” In a louder tone, she stated, “Those are my terms. I do not feel as if I can live in such a society the Tok'ra have now built with the defeat of the system lords. I believe that I can better contribute what remaining life I have to ensure that a reality of our queen survives.”

“And Aldwin?” he asked, much calmer now that the truth was out about how Asteria felt in her role within the Tok'ra. “May I speak to him if you are finished saying your piece?”

Asteria bowed her head in response and a moment later, Aldwin took over again. “We are both in agreement with this course of action, Malek,” he said. “However, there is one thing that you also must know in addition to the reasons she has stated. She has always been jealous of Leto. I believe that this separation will bring both her and myself some peace. Please, if you agree to it, I will need you to create tretonin for me until we return to our dimension.”

As curious as he was to wonder why Asteria would be jealous of Leto, he didn't press for the reason. His own thoughts, memories, and feelings about Leto were in fraught waters, and he did not need to add to that. Instead, he asked, “Why do you not want to involve or tell Anise and Freya?”

“Because either of them would only end up blaming herself for what they had done to us,” Aldwin said, shaking his head slightly.

“She will know if it happens,” he pointed out.

“Yes, but by then, we should already be close to going home. If Ra is correct and holds to his promise, and the device is on Earth, Asteria will need to be extracted before then.”

“Then she is willing to remain with you until then?” he asked, not even bothering to speculate whether or not Ra's promise would be kept.

These were already dangerous waters they were all treading, but he did now understand why Aldwin had not wanted Anise or Freya to find out about this. The variables that went into this were too great. They could all die here, they could all be trapped here, they could all go home, or if luck would have it, Asteria and Aldwin would get this wish to be parted.

He was still not happy about the fact that the symbiote could potentially be leaving them and giving a Goa'uld extremely valuable knowledge, but he knew that it was his mistake in gambling on the explosives knowledge that had partially landed them in this situation. Egeria, for all of her faults in this dimension and for what she was, had spoken some truth. In a way, his Leto still existed and still tried to protect him though the actions of both Asteria and Aldwin – though right now, it seemed more on Aldwin's part than Asteria.

“Until a way home has been secured,” Aldwin stated.

“Then Alexei and I will keep this a secret from Anise, Freya, and the others until you are ready,” he said after a moment. “But--” he held up a hand “--in exchange, since Asteria is bent on causing as much chaos as possible, we will be leaving vials of tretonin on various planets within both Ra's domain and Anubis's domain. We may have had our differences with the Jaffa, but she should have seen through your memories that the Jaffa rebellion is what ultimately destabilized the entire system lords' rule. It is up to her to convince Egeria to utilize this weapon.”

Aldwin was silent for a few long moments before saying, “She agrees, though she thinks that this tretonin seeding will fail.”

“Convince her otherwise. You know as well as I do that the Jaffa in our reality are producing tretonin on their own and with no help from the Tok'ra after receiving the formula. If she wants Egeria to survive what will come after we leave, this is her best chance.”

“You're not building a naquadah-enhanced explosive are you?” Aldwin asked, taking a couple of steps back with a clear frown upon his face.

Instead of directly answering him, Malek went over to where the datapad was still projecting the planet in which he and his team had captured Leto. Ever since he had proposed the idea of giving knowledge and potential capability about a high-yield explosive to Ra, he knew that they were going to need to hunt down materials that Egeria did not have. It would also give him a chance to see the situation within the galaxy, rather than hear it from the system lords' reports that were potentially false and deceptive. He flipped the datapad's projection to another planet and stepped back.

Aldwin's eyes widened for a brief moment before narrowing as he saw his friend cross his arms over his chest and look at him, saying, “You're not serious, are you? Naquadria?!”

Malek had long suspected that when Leto was 'serving' under Ba'al during the war against Anubis, she and Ba'al had most likely made the trip to this particular planet. Ba'al had been asked by Yu's First Prime and Teal'c to lead the combined forces of the system lords to trap and eradicate Anubis, before Anubis had cowardly fled to this system. It was here that Ba'al, Leto, and the Tok'ra via the Tau'ri, learned what made this planet so valuable. Pity now was the fact that the Ori had taken over the planet and made it very dangerous for anyone, even Tok'ra to infiltrate and attempt to extract a small amount of the unique material.

“I am as serious as you and Asteria are about separating,” he said, giving him a leveled look. “Do you still want to go through with it, knowing that I will be building this?”

Aldwin looked away, softly saying, “I can stop you. I _want_ to stop you. But I won't.” He looked back after a few moments. “Neither will Asteria. We accept the conditions you have put forth and--” he hesitated for a moment before plunging on “--thank you, Malek. Truly.”

He silently nodded, with the words he still wanted to say stuck in his throat. Aldwin left a few moments later with a quiet, polite 'good night', but as soon as the door closed, Malek collapsed into the chair that he had been sitting on while perusing the datapad. Pushing the datapad away, he heaved a loud sigh as he felt his host's thoughts spin up a storm.

_**The Council will condemn both of us for letting both him and Asteria go through with this,**_ his host said, feeling as lost as he himself felt.

_**Which is why they only came to us. Anise and Freya must be kept as far away from this decision as possible so that either of them will not be blamed or suffer the consequences if neither of us can indeed, convince Asteria of her folly,**_ he answered. _**Aldwin is very clear-headed in this decision, and I hope that with his help, we can convince her to return home.**_

_**I hope so as well, but you've seen her react to Ba'al's presence, or anyone else's words whenever it comes to defending Egeria. I know that you have reservations about Egeria, and I share those same reservations, but should we tell the queen about Asteria's decision? She may be the only one who can convince Asteria to return.** _

Malek shook his head in their shared space. _**No. It is too dangerous.**_ His host remained silent, though he could feel him step back from the conversation to contemplate what other possible actions they could take. Short of physically restraining and gagging Aldwin to prevent Asteria from emerging when the time came, he could not think of anything else at the moment. Gagging Aldwin was something neither wanted to do to their friend, for he distinctly remembered that it had been something that Jaffa did to a previous host of his (along with many other captured Tok'ra) to keep various poisons used in torture from being spat out. He mentally shuddered and felt a pat of reassurance and comfort from his host.

Physically shaking his head, he got up and left the room. Staying in his room at the moment did not seem appealing, and with it being the middle of the night on the desert planet – it was quite cold enough that only Jaffa assigned as guards would be out and about. However, he braved the cold and eventually made his way towards the area where he had first spoke to Egeria alone all those nights ago.

It was empty as expected and despite the cold and the light wind whipping bits and pieces of sand over his exposed hands and face, he leaned against the railing and looked out into the inky nighttime sandscape. He hadn't even thought so far ahead to plan on the fact that if Ra was not true to his word, which he thought was more likely, what they were going to do. They could continue to help Egeria, but from what he saw in the summit, their continued presence and help would eventually be akin to serving a benevolent dictator. He could not abide by the fact that the queen had slaves present during the summit, but he was not going to call her out on it – this was her domain, her ways, and her reality. This was not his home, and certainly a place that he would not want to stay at – therefore, he would not interfere with how she ruled. The less he integrated himself in this place, the better.

“...concerned for you...” the ghost of a whisper, carried by the wind, floated across his ears. The voice sounded like it belonged to Jolinar. He looked around, but try as he might, he could not see anyone else near by except for perhaps, another alcove balcony in the far distance of the compound. Perhaps that was where Jolinar's voice was being carried from.

“There is nothing to be afraid of, Jolinar.... shape-shifting...prefers the human form...”

“I...not concerned about that, Lantash.... your host...too much time with... travelers, especially Anise.”

“Martouf... good with translations... nothing to be concerned...”

“... still love her?”

Malek frowned, unsure if he caught that last question that Jolinar had asked Lantash. But the silence that followed was quite palpable. He stayed where he was, still and head tilted slightly to the side, even though he knew that that listening position was not going to allow him to hear the conversation any better. A few long moments passed without any discernible words or continuation of the conversation, but just as he thought that perhaps Lantash and Jolinar had moved elsewhere, he heard the answer.

“It... mistake...nothing more, Jolinar.”

He did not need to hear the rest of the conversation to grasp the basics of what had happened to this reality's Freya and Anise. It was apparent from the jealous tone that Jolinar had, that Freya and Anise had been Martouf and Lantash's mates prior to the discovery that Freya and Anise had been turned into a za'tarc. As tragic as it was, it seemed that Anise and Freya's presence here was also having a detrimental effect upon Egeria's children.

As he thought back to Asteria's words about him being targeted by Ba'al, along with the fact that the system lords were clearly uneasy with Aldwin and Asteria's presence, and now this... they were all in danger. The longer they stayed, the more dangerous it would be for them, for it seemed that their counterparts in this reality had left quite an impact during the war.

He stepped back from the railing. He could not wait until morning – he had to start building the explosive now, demonstrate the capability that it had, and threaten the system lords into giving them what they wanted. A true and tangible way home. Gathering forces to strike at Dakara, along with scouting safe routes into Earth, and hoping that Ra's promise of the device on Earth was real, were going to take too long. Aldwin, Freya, Anise, and even reluctant Asteria – their lives were more important for him to save than staying here to attempt to smooth out relations.

There was none in this reality to be had anyways.

~◊~

_In the original reality..._

 

“So...” Daniel heard Vala drawl as she, along with him, Gant, and the two Tok'ra named Xau and Risune made their way down from the stargate to where a few expedition members were waiting for them. “How'd you come to know these Tok'ra, um... Agent is it? Gant?”

“Agh, I'm not an agent anymore, Vala,” Gant answered with a breezy smile upon her face as she turned to walk backwards while the little group made their way towards the ruins. “It's been years since I was employed in that capacity. But to answer your question, Jacob Carter, host to Selmak, recruited me into a team where these two were also in a few years ago. We went gallivanting around the galaxy, kicking Goa'uld ass until they went bottoms up on us.”

“Ah,” Vala answered, nodding a bit jerkily, though Daniel could not help but wonder when Vala had been host to Qetesh, had Qetesh encountered Gant and the other Tok'ra? Considering the mission reports he had read on the side about what the Tok'ra had been doing independently of Stargate Command, he would not have been surprised if Qetesh had encountered some of them. “So... how come Daniel and the others call you 'agent' if you haven't been an 'agent' of whatever you had been? What were you an agent of?”

“Honestly, I don't know why it stuck,” she answered, shrugging before turning to face the other way just as Daniel saw the Tok'ra escorts up ahead indicate that they were approaching. “You can call me Lauren.” With a quick nod towards him, Daniel then saw the former agent gesture for Xau and Risune to follow her, and together, the three peeled off to do whatever reconnaissance they were going to do.

“But—hey!” the half-hearted protests of Vala died as the three quickly left, as she realized that Gant had not answered her second question. Daniel didn't think she would even answer such a question, considering that Gant's former employment before her recruitment into the SGC was supposed to be not known to civilians. It was only because General Hammond had specifically briefed SG-1 on the specialized Tok'ra team that he knew of Gant's former employment.

At the dig site, another Tok'ra took over and led the two of them towards the area where Anise and the others had been. The path there was full of torch-lit debris and took a while, but when Daniel and the others finally rounded the final corner, he couldn't help but let go of his P-90 and the flashlight attached to it. The P-90 and the flashlight swung slightly as he took two steps towards the massive wall at the end of the area that blocked their way, but it was the least of his concern.

“Well,” he said, adjusting his glasses slightly, “this isn't good.”

There was a very faint, but discernible blue-white glow around the writings on the wall that looked similar to the glow emanating from a stargate wormhole. Even Vala had stopped where she was, jaw dropped open. However, their Tok'ra escort pushed on, saying, “There is no radiation emanating from the wall, Dr. Jackson. We have ran several analysis through it and it is quite safe to touch.”

“Well, wait,” he said, closing the distance to the Tok'ra and grabbed the Tok'ra's arm to prevent him from approaching any further. “Let's get this translated first before you go touching it again. You might be safe from it because of the symbiote, but for the rest of us...”

“I understand, Dr. Jackson,” the Tok'ra said, stepping to the side.

Daniel returned his attention to the wall of glowing Ancient text. The datapad, along with the transmissions that had been made from Anise's datapad to the others in the expedition had not covered the entire wall. All he received was bits and pieces of the wall. Now though, looking at it in full, he could not help but frown – both in concern at what this wall represented and worry. “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here,” he muttered to himself.

“Is that what it says?” Vala asked, stepping up to stand next to him.

“No,” he said as the frown on his face grew deeper the further he read what was on the wall. “What was this place used for again?” he questioned out loud.

“As far as we can tell, it was just a storage space of sorts for items that the Ataniks did not need. This is also the place where we found our new queen, but that is far on the other side of the ruins and no where near this area.”

“Okay,” he said, furrowing his eyebrows for a moment. “A junk storage space that hid a symbiote queen and this thing...”

“I should add, Dr. Jackson, that a zero-point module had powered the shielding in this ruin. It held up until Aldwin deactivated it using the Atanik bracer to help him penetrate the shield to disable it from within. Our attempts that trying to reactivate that shield with the original power source has failed,” the Tok'ra said.

“What kind of place was this... really?” he couldn't help but ask out loud. An ordinary storage space should not have had such a powerful shielding, especially using Ancient technology. It shouldn't even have this illuminated, glowing wall of writing on it either, but yet, it had housed and protected a symbiote queen for nearly two thousand years.

“So, Daniel, what does the writing say?” Vala asked, interrupting his thoughts as he looked around to see that there was no other indication of any writing, mechanisms, or oddities other than the wall in front of them.

“Transferred from Atlantis. Do not use unless you are prepared for the consequences that arise from seeking what you need most,” he stated.

Vala barked in laughter, saying, “Yeah, right. A warning to not use? Of all the Ancient things that you and SG-1 have come across, and even in our travels together, when have you ever seen a warning to not use such a device?”

“No... that is what it says,” he said. “But... this mention of Atlantis is odd, and you see this letter here?” He pulled up his P-90 again and waved the flashlight attached to it over a certain letter on the wall. “That's not Ancient. That's a letter written in the Furling alphabet. I remember seeing some of the alphabet from what Dr. Weir remembered and wrote down in her brief time on their homeworld.”

“But you said that you never found the Furlings in this galaxy,” Vala stated.

“No, we never did. But the Great Alliance formed by the Nox, Asgard, Ancients, and Furlings must have spanned both galaxies – at least enough that technology.... no, that can't be right.”

“What?”

“No, I translated it wrong... it's not 'consequences', it's 'effects'...” he murmured to himself before looking around again. “Let me see the Atanik writings.”

The Tok'ra who was patiently standing near them immediately handed a datapad over to him. As he scrolled through the various notes from all expedition members, he was certain that his theory was right. But if he was, then what had made Anise and the others disappear was a door that swung both ways. While wherever lied behind transported people to elsewhere, it was sure to bring them back – provided that the travelers did not perish first. But what else would it bring back with them?

“The Ataniks are Furlings,” he said, looking back up. “Or rather, they're the result of Ancient-Furling relations. They're the biological children of both the Ancients and the Furlings... like that shorter-than-average Furling who helped Colonel Sheppard – Apollo. He has the Ancient gene but can also shape-shift. Ataniks must have been a nickname for them. 'Ata' being a derivative for 'Father' in the Ancient tongue, and 'niks' also being a derivative of 'children'.”

He took a step closer to the wall. “The Ataniks were looking for a home after the Ancients ascended. They probably could not live in Furling society for some reason or another... most likely due to their 'sullied' and 'unpure' blood. This device... 'Transferred from Atlantis. Do not use unless you are prepared for the effects that arise from seeking what you need most.' Hmm...”

“But...” Vala began, drawing out the word.

“But whatever is behind this wall is probably a two-way door. The Ataniks are on the other side of it. If they're anything like their fore-bearers, they could be the key to defeating the Ori and Wraiths.”

 

~*~*~*~

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

 

It was the slightly muffled clinking of crystals onto the table that caused Malek to look up from his piecing together of the first of many materials that were needed to ensure that the casing for the naquadria-enhanced explosive would be sufficiently contained. During his brief time at the SGC's former Alpha Site, after the Ashrak had been killed, he had engaged in a discussion with then-Major Carter about the properties of the Tau'ri-made, naquadah-enhanced generator. While similar to what his host had built long before in prototype form, it was through that discussion that he had found out about naquadria and just how unstable it was to contain or use. He hoped that with what they could possible extract – if successful – he and his host would be able to find a way to contain the instability just long enough to demonstrate it's capabilities.

“What are you doing, Aldwin?” he asked, blinking in puzzlement as he felt his host also purse his lips in their shared space, curious as well.

He saw Aldwin let go of the satchel that contained the tunneling crystals and look up at him with no hint of animosity, grief, frustration, or anger in his eyes. A moment later, he heard him say, “Well, to quote something that SG-1 has said often, 'going to blow them all to hell', then I certainly cannot let you accomplish that on your own.” Malek saw him nudge the bag before continuing to say, “I think I can create a structure that would be able to hold back the instability of the material until it is detonated.”

It was then that he also noticed that there was a small disc, no larger than the size of his thumb stuck against Aldwin's left temple. It was a memory recall device, and while he was not sure what to make of it, for he knew that Aldwin knew just how dangerous it was to use for an extensive amount of time, he couldn't help but voice his concern. “Are you sure?”

It wasn't that he didn't want Aldwin's help on this, but that their 'argument', if one could call it that last night, did not sit well with him. Aside from his opinion that he thought Asteria was foolish, he found that he didn't want to see his friend hurt even more by diving back into memories when it was clear to him that Aldwin was still mourning the loss of Leto.

“I've already been looking through Leto's memories since the second day that we've arrived here, Malek,” Aldwin admitted. “It was at a low level setting – enough for me to give Egeria information on the Eye of Ra. The memories I have of Leto and of her memories within me are the source of contention, but Asteria has agreed to let me continue to peruse the memories until we're ready to be separated. Please let me help. I want to help.”

In a way, he understood that the request that was not only to help Aldwin come to terms with Leto's sacrifice, but also of all the things that he had allowed her to do in the last few years. He too wanted some peace of mind, and even without the urging of his host, he realized that even before he had reached this conclusion, he was already willing to let him help construct this monster of a weapon. Was this the new line in the sand that he had drawn for himself? He didn't know and his host remained silent as well.

“All right,” he answered, nodding slightly. “But do not push yourself.” There was an unspoken warning in that statement that he knew he did not have to say to Aldwin's symbiote. Asteria was still a symbiote within a Tok'ra and with her behavior as of late, he would be watching any action she took while in control, very carefully.

“I won't,” Aldwin said, pulling up a strange-looking chair that this particular chamber had within, and sitting down. Upon the end of the summit, Jolinar had shown Malek this chamber that was to be his workstation to produce the explosive. It wasn't what he was used to during the days the Tok'ra lived underground, but it was adequate to get the job started. There were quite a few unusual-looking tools and some more of the basic ones that he knew how to use, but other than that, proper materials within this place and on the planet were quite scarce. “And Malek?”

Malek looked back up just as he was about to hammer the pieces into a chamber of sorts. He would have to find something else that was not within the room or on the workstation to wield the pieces together – he dared not take apart his zat'nik'tel and use the power source. “Yes?”

“Thank you.”

He blinked in slight puzzlement before realizing that it was the faint, almost indiscernible _smile_ upon Aldwin's face that was what threw him off. His host was scrambling to find the last memory they had of their friend smiling and to his chagrin, the last time they remembered Aldwin smiling was just after Anise had returned from her first trip to Earth. He, along with Martouf, and Aldwin had cornered her in the meal hall and had asked her about the trip. There had been much amusement and laughter shared in the story until he had been called away by the chemical engineering labs to help with their development of better water purifying agents. That had been only a few years ago, but to him, it felt like several lifetimes.

“Malek, I bring news of your teltac request.”

Jolinar's no-nonsense, blunt greeting shook both of them out of their reverie as Malek looked over to see her enter, looking quite calm and composed as he remembered she usually was in their reality. He immediately hearkened back to what he thought he had heard through the wind-driven whispers, but try as he might, he could not read Jolinar. She was as good as his reality's Jolinar in that no one could discern what she thought or felt from looking at her and trying to interpret her body language.

“It has been approved by our queen on one condition,” Jolinar stated without preamble. “Lantash is currently outfitting the ship to your specifications., but our queen's condition is that both Lantash and I accompany you when you decide to go. Do you accept?”

He nodded, placing the pieces he had been holding down. “I accept, though it may be wise to inform your queen that Aldwin and Freya will also be accompanying me in the gathering of materials. As Martouf may have already informed Egeria, Freya is an expert in ancient cultures and where we need to go requires her expertise in navigating ruins and the like. As for Aldwin, he is helping me with the structural engineering that will contain the explosive, and will need different materials than the ones that I am searching for.”

His initial story as to having Aldwin accompany them was not as robust as the one he had given Jolinar, but thanks to the fortuitous timing of Aldwin arrival here, the excuse was a valid and truthful one. He didn't know what materials Aldwin needed, but considering that his friend was diving back into old memories, he was sure that those memories contained other planets that they could start seeding tretonin. The only problem now, was to start creating the tretonin formula without letting Egeria and the other allied system lords, or Egeria's children finding out.

He needed to extract material out of a symbiote, preferably one that was still immature. Either ones that had just been birthed or in the beginning of incubation within Jaffa were the best for the base of tretonin, for those already blended into hosts were too mature and contained mixed DNAs. However, just going up to one of Egeria's Jaffa or in Jaffa settlements on other colonies was not the best thing to do in such circumstances. He would have to find a way to extract what he needed without those of this reality knowing any better until it was too late.

Jolinar gave a very curt nod before saying in a crisp tone, “Then I look forward to working with all of you on this project. When you are ready to travel--”

“Ah, so this is where she has hidden you.” Malek was not the only one to openly frown and grow slightly angry at the sight of Ba'al strolling in with a confident and arrogant smile upon his face. “Both of you it seems,” the system lord continued. “For all of promises of information exchange, it is quite hypocritical of her to have hidden this--”

“This creation and construction of the explosive is a dangerous undertaking, Ba'al,” Aldwin interrupted, though Malek did not hear any sort of cold fury that he had heard yesterday within his friend's tone. It sounded incredibly neutral with a hint of caution. “Though I am not the primary architect of this device, I am sure that Malek here can explain all the things that can and will go wrong should either of us be disturbed or interrupted at inopportune times. I believe that he and I are in agreement that you may watch the process, but there is a great risk of you being vaporized along with us if anything goes terribly wrong during the creation.”

The silence that answered the rather eloquent explanation was damning as the arrogant smile upon Ba'al's face started to falter before the system lord said, “Then I shall heed your words, however insolent they may be, host, and take my leave for now.”

Irritation swept through both Malek and his host, and just as Ba'al turned to leave, he said, “His name is not 'host' Ba'al. It is Aldwin. You would best remember that for the future.”

Ba'al paused and turned slightly towards them, saying, “Yes, and while I find it strange that you defend him as if he were your host's mate, you would also best remember, Malek, that this is not your dimension. I am quite baffled as to how my counterpart in your reality tolerated such insolence in allowing Goa'uld to untether their hosts. But do care to remember as well that my tolerance for differences in how my fellow system lords operate only goes so far. Others within this alliance are not so tolerant as I am.”

Malek bristled, but felt a slight pressure upon his right forearm. He glanced over to see that Aldwin had reached across the table to do such a gesture. There was a very quick shake of his friend's head to silently tell him not to continue down the line of argument against Ba'al. He wanted to ignore the warning, but there was a concerned look in his friend's eyes. Moments later, the system lord left and the pressure upon his forearm was released as Aldwin returned to his previous stance.

“It pains me to say this, but Ba'al's reminder that this is not your dimension is correct in this instance, Malek,” Jolinar stated after a few moments of silence. “However,” she said, turning her attention to Aldwin, “your words, Aldwin. They are not what something that Asteria or Aldwin I knew would say. They are something that perhaps Leto would have said in advisement to our queen.”

“I was host to Leto in my dimension,” Aldwin quietly answered after a moment of uncomfortable silence. “She gave her life to ensure that those who remained had a future.”

“A noble sacrifice,” Jolinar said after a moment, looking as if she was not going to press for details. “It explains how you would have known something as intimate and detailed as the Eye of Ra, and have given specific information to our queen. Thank you for sharing that with me. I do, however, have one last question before I will leave to allow both of you some peace and quiet to build your explosive. Is it true that there is a grave danger in this construction?”

“There is,” Malek spoke up as he caught Aldwin's knowing glance over at him. “But not at the moment. It is only after a certain element is acquired that the process becomes very dangerous. However, in the interest of not blowing up the entire planet into the afterlife, I shall warn you when we acquire the element. That is also one of the reasons why I am glad that your queen approved of the teltac. Once we secure the dangerous element, we will construct a containment unit in space so that the danger is only limited to those within the teltac.”

Jolinar nodded in understanding before a familiar, mischievous smile briefly appeared on her face. “Then in the interest of completing this explosive in a manner that would allow all of us to survive, I will not inform Ba'al of that detail.”

“Might I also suggest that he'd be reminded that if they get the weapon at Dakara working, they will still need the simultaneous chappa'ai activation sequence in order to ensure that wherever Anubis is, it is a successful strike,” Aldwin suggested. “Ba'al, in our dimension, worked on that for quite a few months.”

“I shall inform him of that detail then,” she answered before bowing slightly towards them and left.

As soon as her footsteps on the polished floor faded, Aldwin spoke up, saying, “Of all the Goa'uld here, I believe that she is the only one with true intentions – that is, she wants us to leave with our lives intact.”

“She does remind me of what our dimension's Jolinar had been like during the first time Anubis rose to power,” he agreed.

“Determined, level-headed, and not prone to panic or displays of arrogance,” Aldwin said, nodding, though Malek suspected that Aldwin was only saying that because of the deep memories he had accessed. “I think that of everyone here... she may be the only Goa'uld that we can trust to not at least stab us in the back for the moment. Martouf as well.”

Malek nodded, but did not voice his concern about what he had thought he had overheard last night. It was unfounded, and without any further evidence, all he heard could have been in a completely different context. He would have to observe and listen closer before jumping to his own conclusions. However, as his thoughts strayed towards Freya and Anise, he hoped that Freya was having some success in debriefing Egeria on what she and the Atanik, Apollo, had uncovered thus far.

~◊~

“Are you certain that you are all right, Apollo?” Freya asked. She could not help but feel a bit worried at just how pale the young-looking Atanik in human form, appeared. Of course, she, along with her symbiote had been shocked to hear that the Atanik was centuries older than he appeared when in human form. However, what little she had found out about him was that he preferred to remain in human form whenever among the system lords.

She didn't blame him for it, for during the summit, she could not help but give surreptitious looks towards both Ra and Apollo. Added to her fascination was the fact that the two were Ataniks – a race that she had devoted much of her recent century in studying. However, Anise being the more cautious of them, kept her grounded with the fact that these were Goa'uld and their devoted slaves.

Apollo had proven that point quite succinctly in the presence of Martouf, who had offered to help her with the translations and understanding of the machine. It was clear that Martouf tolerated Apollo's presence, even though the young Atanik knew next to nothing about the device, but had studied enough of his people's language to be able to read. Freya had found that to be quite depressing, disappointing, and similar to the stories that she had heard of those that Ra had taken from Earth and seeded on other planets – those places had had reading and writing outlawed. It seemed that the Ataniks who lived on Earth had been enslaved just as humans had been, and had had their history taken away from them.

While Martouf tolerated Apollo with a strained politeness, it seemed that Apollo's constant espousal, utter devotion, and praising of Ra whenever given a chance to put into context with regards to translations, had annoyed him enough that he had not shown up this morning. Freya wanted to search for him, but Anise had cautioned her against it, citing that because it seemed that Martouf was indispensable to Egeria, he may have merely been called upon another task. Thus now, she was working alone with the Atanik. She did not mind the solitary company, but right now, her primary concern was just how in pain Apollo looked.

“Your concern....” Apollo began, grimacing for a moment before it seemed that whatever pain had gripped him became a little too much to bear that he had to briefly fold upon himself. Freya took a couple of steps towards him, but then the Atanik had stood back up, waving her back. “Your concern is touching, but I am fine. My Lord Ra has given me strength before we arrived. I should be able to fight off--”

The Atanik curled up again as his breathing became alarmingly labored, and Freya ignored his attempts to wave her away. Stepping up underneath and slinging one of the Atanik's arms over her shoulders, she supported him and hobbled him out. However, her way was briefly blocked by the unexpected appearance of Leto. Though she had initially been quite uneasy with how this Leto acted and behaved, she quickly realized that she knew little to nothing about her dimension's Leto other than what she had displayed during her final hours. That had been a false Leto – one who had continued a charade just to ensure that the Tok'ra future was secured.

This Leto was unknown to her, even though she appeared to be the consort of Ba'al. However, the fact that Leto was in this area whereas Egeria's children merely passed by her and the ill-looking Apollo without a second glance, made her hope that the Goa'uld was here not by accident.

“Please, Leto, I need your help,” she said, hefting the Atanik up a little further. Human-form Apollo may have been in terms of physical appearances, but he was heavier than she had anticipated. Even with Anise augmenting her strength, she was not physically built to carry an Atanik in human form.

There was a moment's pause before Leto approached and took the other side of the Atanik and slung an arm over her own shoulders. “If Egeria has not changed the layout of her compound, then the healing chambers are this way.”

Freya followed her lead and together they carried the pale, nearly unresponsive Atanik down the halls. However, they did not even get more than two halls before Apollo suddenly heaved and bucked. Were it not for Anise augmenting her strength, Freya would have lost her balance. However, she did immediately throw off Apollo's arms around her shoulder – just as terrifyingly sharp claws and patches of fur emerged from where Apollo's hands had been.

Leto had done the same, though Freya could not help but let a frightened yelp escape her lips. Both of them had taken a few steps back on either side of the hall, but where the claws had been, hands had returned to the forefront. The Atanik was curled up and whimpering, but as Freya looked up, she saw that Leto had immediately taken her weapon out – a dagger that looked just like the one she was carrying.

It was nearly... no, it was the exact same crystal-carving dagger that Aldwin had given to her years ago when both he and Malek had convinced her that it was safer to arm herself with a weapon with Tanith around. She quickly glanced down to see that the dagger she had yet to return to her friend was still upon her, but the partial transformation of Apollo yet again caught her attention.

It was only when Apollo started to babble in Ancient did Leto say, “Has he gone mad?”

“No, wait!” she said, holding out a hand to prevent Leto from approaching and possibly killing the Atanik without due cause. Leto did stop, but unfortunately, rapid, heavy footsteps of Jaffa echoed and bounced around the halls. Moments later, this particular one was filled with a complement of Jaffa surrounding either side.

Jolinar had also arrived with the Jaffa, and just as she caught a glimpse of the scene, she demanded, “What is happening here?”

They all received their answer once again as Apollo partially reverted to his feline form before returning to his human form. Several of the Jaffa immediately activated their staff weapons, pointing it at the still curled and mewling form of the Atanik.

“Please, stop!” Freya pleaded. “Please! We just need one zat'nik'tel burst to calm him and get him to healing chambers.”

“One burst will not render an Atanik unconscious as it does to you or I.”

Freya turned, unable to hide her disgust at the appearance of Ba'al, who had weaved his way through the Jaffa on her side of the hall to stand next to her. She took a clear and large step away from the system lord, though in reaction, Ba'al just merely smirked at her before returning his attention to the still-writhing and Ancient-language jabbering Atanik on the ground. “However, in this state, I believe that one might actually render him unconscious.”

“What is the matter?” she heard Malek say from behind the Jaffa on her side, just as she glanced back to see both him and Aldwin also push through.

“What is the creature saying?” Ba'al said at the same time, giving a puzzled look over towards Leto, who still had her knife out and was looking incredibly wary at Apollo, who had partially transformed back and forth again. Leto shook her head negative, indicating that she did not know what was being said.

“Jaffa,” Jolinar began.

“Do not shoot the creature,” Ba'al insisted. “This kind of reaction is expected--”

“Expected?!” she heard Malek explode. “What did you do to him?!”

“Come now,” the system lord answered, looking as if the suffering Atanik was none of his immediately concern. “Surely you must have had these things in your dimension. I find it impossible that your reality's Lord Set did not create or distribute nish'ta. I merely took it away from this creature, to better learn and hope that Lord Ra is not deceiving us about Tau'ri.”

“You... ” Malek began, though Freya was sure she was not the only one to hear the clear anger and dangerous tone that had over taken him. “You are killing him by--”

“How pathetic--” Ba'al interrupted.

Freya was not the only one to blink in surprise, still aware of the awful sounds of suffering coming from Apollo but unable to do anything for fear of being skewered, as Malek attempted to punch Ba'al. However, he was stopped by the intervention of Aldwin. No, it wasn't Aldwin who had intervened – it was Asteria who had closed her host's hand around Malek's balled up one and held it back. There was a minute difference in the way Asteria held herself within her host's body and the way Aldwin usually held himself. Aldwin did not hold himself tall and commanding like Malek did, but right now, Asteria seemed to.

“You should know how addicting nish'ta is, and how dangerous it is to take a user off of it without gradual weaning, Ba'al,” Asteria stated as Freya saw Malek try to wrench his fist out of the iron grip before being propelled back. Freya stepped forward to catch her friend and gently held him back as he shook out his hand while continuing to glare at Ba'al.

“We too would like to find out what this Atanik is saying, but for now, rendering him insensible until he bites his own tongue and bleeds to death through other types of traumatic forces that he can employ, is detrimental to the alliance. He is remaining here under Egeria's request and Ra's orders and we will keep him here. A gradual decline in his nish'ta treatment is all that is needed before we can find out if what he is telling us is true.” There was a pause before Asteria continued, saying, “Besides, I highly doubt that Egeria would even allow you to take Ra's lo'tar as a host in such an underhanded fashion and destroy the alliance... would you not say so, Egeria?”

“Yes,” Freya heard the queen speak up and saw the sea of Jaffa across from where Jolinar and Leto were, part to allow both the queen and Lantash through. “Jaffa, kree!” the queen commanded after a moment, waving her hand. The staff weapons retracted and the Jaffa stood down as Egeria then waved for one of the Jaffa to shoot Apollo with a zat'nik'tel. As the bolt _bzzt_ ed through the air and played all over the Atanik's body, Apollo suddenly relaxed and became unconscious.

Not a moment later, the queen said, “Jolinar, Lantash, take the Atanik to the healing room.” The two obeyed their queen's orders and hefted up Apollo.

Seeing that the situation was being diffused and that Malek was controlling his temper, Freya left, trailing after the two. She was worried about her friends, especially with what just happened, but it did not escape her notice that there was a memory recall device upon Aldwin's temple. She knew little of her dimension's Asteria, but considering the memory device, she wondered if that was really Asteria talking or projecting something that Leto would have said – for what stories she had heard from Martouf concerning this dimension's Asteria, Asteria seemed to be as hotheaded and reckless as Malek. This Asteria, in the times that she had shown herself, was rational, calm, composed, and dare she say it – almost as scheming-like as a Goa'uld was.

~◊~

“Have you gone mad Asteria?” Malek asked, angrily whispering the question as soon as both he and Asteria, still in control of Aldwin's body, had returned to the chamber where they had been working. He could not yell the question for their voices would carry down the hall since there was no doors to close. “You cannot just take Ra's lo'tar from under Ra, much less Ba'al's eyes! To take with out consent is to be Goa'uld and _we are not_ Goa'uld!”

Asteria's eyes blazed golden for a brief moment before she hissed, “You are Tok'ra, but I defected. I know what I am and what I can become once again. So did Leto, or have you forgotten what you did to her, because you could not see past your blind hatred?!”

It felt like a slap in the face, even though there was no physically stinging pain as he took a step back, feeling shame wash over him. Even his host was mentally wincing at the words. However, before he could protest, Asteria had disappeared and Aldwin had taken over.

“I apologize for her words, Malek,” Aldwin quietly said, reaching up and removing the memory recall device before placing it on the table next to the crystals that he had been carving. “It was my fault that the device was set to a higher setting than normal – I was looking for a particular memory of a time where Leto had built a containment unit for Ba'al. I did not realize that other memories had leaked through to be strong enough to affect Asteria as well.”

Malek was silent for a very long moment. Even his host had nothing to say. The closest equivalent that he knew that his host had encountered in such a situation was the fact that his host hated what his home planetary government had done to him and his family, and had vowed to cut ties. However, Malek did not want that equivalent to happen between him, Aldwin, and reluctantly as well to Asteria; especially here where it was dangerous to.

“The fault was also mine,” he said, feeling a little calmer but still hurt by Asteria's words. He had not forgotten what his blind hatred for the Goa'uld had done – it had made him kill his beloved without mercy. He took a deep breath. “However, please reassure Asteria that I do believe that it would be mutually beneficial should we approach the Atanik in consideration as a possible host for her.”

Aldwin was silent for a minute before nodding. “She appreciates the consideration and wants to reassure you as well that she will approach the task with caution and will ask for consent from Apollo to be host to her. Also, in order to ensure that both Freya's translations are continuing and Apollo is being weaned off nish'ta, we will try to convince Egeria to allow Apollo to accompany us on the teltac.”

“What if the Atanik is not cooperative when completely free of the nish'ta's grip?” he asked. “I know little of how Ancient is spoken, but if I remember from Freya's briefings, I believe that Apollo was calling for his 'father to rain down fire upon those who walk the mortal plane'.”

He saw Aldwin frown. It was clear to him at that moment that with his very rudimentary knowledge of the Ancient language, coupled with the fact that he could not read it but only possibly identify it, only Freya could truly confirm whether or not both they had heard the Atanik correctly. The other Goa'uld here did not even know or understand it. However, he would not have put it past Ra to have a passing knowledge of it. While as valuable it would be to have the Atanik on their side, providing that it was only the nish'ta that was warping Apollo's mind, it was the words that worried him the most.

“I thought that the Council stated that the Tau'ri told them that the Ancients would not interfere, even for the war against the Ori,” Aldwin said. “Surely Apollo's words said in pain are merely prayers spilled to whatever deity his race originally worshiped?”

“We are in a dimension where nothing makes sense,” he said, approaching the table and leaned against it. “We are allied by proxy with Ra. What is there to not say that the Ancients are not watching and are waiting for an opportunity to intervene? They may have stayed out of this war for over two millennium, but I am of the belief that anything can and will happen.”

“So you fear an alliance between Ra and the Ancients – if they are indeed, present and waiting?” Aldwin asked.

“No,” he answered, shaking his head slightly. “I think the Ataniks may have been allies of Anubis before, and possibly with the Ancients. We know that Anubis is a half-ascended Ancient. We know that Ra has kept the knowledge of his host race from the other system lords. The question is why? The system lords were correct in pointing out why Anubis has not yet used Dakara when he could have easily done so – and build a multi-chappa'ai dialing sequence. We have both seen what happened during his rise to power the first time around in our dimension. He just disappeared in the middle of the war before returning many centuries later.”

“But no such thing happened in this dimension,” Aldwin finished up for him, nodding. “Then I now better understand your concern – we will need to inform Freya of it. She can begin to question Apollo once his nish'ta addiction is fading, though I do hope that your theory is wrong. However, I will remind Asteria to adhere to the tenements of the Tok'ra once the Atanik is recovered. She will not take him as a host without his consent.”

~◊~

_In the original reality, Tok'ra homeworld..._

 

“So we're talking about what... a weapon?”

“No,” Daniel answered, shaking his head slightly. It was very rare nowadays that Major General Jack O'Neill went off world, but considering what the Tok'ra had discovered and what he had initially sent back to the SGC in terms of theory and translation, this was a trip well warranted. It just wasn't the golden weapon that the Milky Way, or Pegasus for the matter, was looking for to kill two birds with one stone. However, considering that Jack had been the first one to be subjected to Anise and Freya's experiment with the Atanik bracers, Jack's presence here was needed.

He, along with Jack, Sam, IOA Representative Richard Woolsey, Xau, Risune, Agent Gant, Persus, and Garshaw were sitting around the table that was normally reserved for Council meetings. Vala had shown some interest in the Atanik find, but those tending to the former host of Ba'al's care had asked her for help. There also would have been more of the Council here, but with the upcoming summit still on schedule, the rest of the Tok'ra Council still had to consider who to send as their representatives – thus only Garshaw and Per'sus were here. Cam was currently leading a team off-world. Teal'c was also on Dakara, debating with the Jaffa Council on who they would send as well. Daniel made sure that both were kept informed of what they were finding on the Atanik planet.

“It's more like the Quantum Mirror,” he continued. “Except that well... we're not exactly sure if it is a safe guard or if it was in fact, deliberately built this way.”

He had only heard in passing from Gant about the buzz that had been generated as soon as preliminary theories and findings had been sent back to the SGC. One of the buzz that was more low key than the others was the 'reaction' that the glowing wall had when Gant had approached it after her scouting with Tok'ra operatives, Xau and Risune, produced no signs of the missing three. Gant had approached the glowing wall, as curious as any other of those present, and when she reached out to touch it, it got brighter before dimming back down to what it had been. Finding it quite puzzling, it was only after he had asked her if she had the Ancient gene that she told him that she had undergone gene therapy recently. It had been done mainly to help the Milky Way archaeological teams.

Gene therapy was recommended for many of Atlantis' expedition members, for there were many things that they were finding each day that the Ancients had left behind. However, for the SGC, it was not recommended unless absolutely necessary, due to the fears that the Ori were capable of creating a known biological agent that could kill specifically those who had the Ancient gene – therapy or naturally. Of course, there had been no evidence of that yet, but considering just how strange of things that the SGC encountered even before the Ori invasion, along with the fact that scores of Ancients had died because of an unstoppable biological disease, it was something to consider.

Daniel didn't even know that they had scaling for the Ancient gene-therapy until Gant had explained that even after successful treatments, most of those who had undergone the treatments were only average users. Average meaning that they would be able to activate the chair in Antarctica with some concentration, but would not have enough control to activate the missiles, much less guide them. Gant's gene-therapy afforded her just slightly under average, which meant that theoretically, anything Ancient that needed the gene to activate could sense that a user had the gene, but that was it.

So when the wall had flared in its glowing, it had given all of them quite a valuable insight into just what safeguards the Ataniks from Atlantis had put into this device. It also gave those who had witnessed the surge some pause. Now, with Jack here, as the strongest human with natural Ancient genes, Daniel hoped that what they were about to ask Jack to do would confirm their confusion.

“Here,” he said, taking the piece of rock that Risune had taken out of a pouch, and slid it down the table until it stopped just shy of Jack's hands that were resting lightly on the table.

“Okay,” Jack said, frowning slightly and picking up the rock. “It's a rock---oh hey!” The rock flared quite brightly as if it were a tiny sun for a brief moment before it thudded back to the table, inert and not glowing. “What the hell?” Jack asked, immediately holding up his hands.

“It's not radioactive, sir,” Gant said, reaching across from where she was sitting and picking up the rock. It glowed faintly while she held it, but she didn't let it go as she said, “Sorry about that, sir, but it looks like the barrier wall reacts only to those with the Ancient gene – therapy and natural. This piece was chipped off of the barrier with quite a bit of difficulty.”

“Kind of like how some devices and tech react to the naquadah running through the bloodstream of hosts and former hosts?” Sam asked, frowning as she reached halfway towards Gant before Gant passed her the rock. It remained unglowing and quite ordinary in Sam's hands before she placed it down on the table.

“But that cannot be,” Garshaw spoke up, looking quite puzzled. Even for all of his stoicism and somewhat arrogant demeanor, Per'sus also looked just as mystified as Garshaw. “The blending of host and symbiote rewrites genetic markers for the host.”

“While there is no denying that,” Sam cautiously began in as diplomatic of a tone as possible, “we have seen that the Ancient gene is quite resilient. I mean, General O'Neill and Kannan were partially blended and even then, traces of naquadah were left in the General's blood. But he was still able to use the chair during Anubis's attack on Earth.”

“However, partially blended is unlike a full blend,” Per'sus pointed out before placing his hands on the table, as if placating those around the table. Before Jack could jump in with what Daniel could only assume was going to be an indignant jab at how Kannan violated the tenants of the Tok'ra, the High Councilor continued to say, “but your implications may be correct in this instance. Of those who are missing, the only one whom we do not know of his origins is Malek's host.”

Silence rang around the table and just as it was starting to become uncomfortable, Daniel coughed lightly and said, “Well, if no one else is going to say it, I will. Apart from the Ori, we haven't encountered any other person in this galaxy who can activate any devices left by the Ancients that require a genetic marker to work. Every Ancient-gene holder is from Earth.”

“Malek's host had been a prisoner on board one of Sokar's ships prior to joining us,” Garshaw said in a careful tone. “He was rescued by Jolinar and Aldwin a few months prior to your first contact with us. We assumed that Malek's host had been through an ordeal great enough that he refused to speak to us and allowed Malek to speak for them.”

“Jack...” Daniel began as he realized that the brief but vague timeline that the Tok'ra had just given them did coincide with a particular event – or rather series of events – he remembered reading and being briefed upon. “Isn't that when the Russians...”

“Oh those darn Russkies,” Jack lightly answered, though Daniel did catch the knowing look that flitted through his eyes. It was possible, even though highly improbable, that Malek's host may have been a part of that lost Russian team that had went through the secondary stargate all those years ago.

“Well,” Woolsey said, interrupting the speculators, “as interesting as this has become, our focus is not on one Tok'ra. What are the implications of this barrier and of the device behind it, Dr. Jackson? Will it truly stay 'active' until the three return? Will we need to set up defenses in this area to prevent the Ori from getting to it and potentially crossing dimensions to wipe out the Ataniks?”

“Honestly, I don't know,” he admitted. “If we keep a low profile, I think we're safe for now. Anise and Freya's research notes on the life of Ataniks are well-documented, but we don't know anything about Furling culture and barely anything about the Ancients to speculate how to use this device to get a message to Malek and the others – without accidentally sending anyone else through. I think we might need to see if the Furlings are willing to send someone to this galaxy _before_ the summit to help us.”

“I'll see what I can do then, Dr. Jackson,” Woolsey answered, though there was a grim look upon his face.

Daniel knew that he should not hope that the IOA representative would be able to have Dr. Weir successfully contact the Furlings, considering that the only transmission they received after the incident with Taethos and his people was a terse: 'we are willing to talk about an alliance only if the Great Races agree to it'. Other than Atlantis contacting the Furlings, was the fact that they were in the midst of trying to contact all within the former Great Alliances, and a summit was happening, there had been no other transmission from the Furlings. Earth and the Tok'ra were most likely going to have to solve this on their own.

 

~*~*~*~

 


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

 

_[And what are we carving today, Aldwin?]_

_Aldwin smiled to himself as he felt his symbiote teasingly nudge him in their shared space. He focused back on the external world and continued to carefully scrape a tiny fleck of the smoky-blue crystal off. Setting his carving knife down, he gently blew on the octahedron to clean it of granular dust before holding it up into the light. The crystal was no bigger than the width and height of his thumb as he held it between his forefinger and thumb. It was completely useless in terms of tunneling crystals, but for the purposes of this particular thing he was creating, it was perfect._

_[You know as well as I who this carving is for,] he stated as he wrapped the tiny octahedron in a piece of cloth before putting it in his pouch._

_[Yes, and if you come up with another excuse that what you carved is another 'experiment' for Lysana and Malek to test in the field, I have half a mind to just intervene and outright state about how you feel about Lysana, Aldwin,] his symbiote huffed in annoyance. [I do not understand why you are so frightened to confess your feelings for her.]_

_[You wouldn't understand, Leto,] he began._

_He felt a mental thwack in their shared space before his symbiote said, [I understand well enough, young one. You are not the first host I had who fell deeply in love with another host, though you are the first host to have done so at first sight. I have the duty of ensuring that your hormonal levels are balanced, and your thinking of her right now is not helping me.] He could mentally feel his symbiote folder her 'arms' over her chest as she continued to say, [Trust me when I say that it is quite all right to admit your feelings to Lysana. She has opened up to you and I know Malek would have never allowed it to happen, had he not accepted and trusted you.]_

_[Is that fondness for 'foolish, stubborn, idiotic, and reckless' Malek I hear?] he lightly asked as he physically got up from his workspace and left the lab._

_He could feel his symbiote's annoyance bleed through, though it wasn't in malicious intent. [Quiet, you,] his symbiote gently admonished._

_[Yes, mother,] he teasingly answered. However, as he winded his way through the halls and approached the area where he knew Lysana was currently working at, he slowed his footsteps down. [If Lysana accepts to being my mate, will you tell them of your name, or will you continue to remain anonymous?]_

_His symbiote was silent for a while before answering, [We shall see.]_

_He didn't push her for a better answer, for in their shared memories, that was the same answer she had given to her previous hosts whenever they entered relationships with other hosts. She had never given out her name other than to her hosts. Even though he hoped that perhaps she would eventually change and wanted her to become more inclusive and integrated with her fellow Tok'ra, he respected her wishes._

_**Aldwin!** _

“ _Wadjet. My name is Wadjet.”_

_**Aldwin!** _

“...you lied, Leto. Why... protect--”

“Aldwin!”

_**Aldwin!** _

He snapped his eyes open, coughing as he felt the weight upon his chest ease with each breath he tried to take in between coughs. Gradually, he became aware that a gentle hand was physically patting his back, while a mental one was checking all functions of his body. He blinked the bleariness out of his eyes as he glanced over to see Freya crouched next to him, patting him on the back. The others on the cargo ship were all in various stages of approaching him, and he realized what had happened. Freya just happened to be the first to reach him.

It had been a few days since Egeria had granted them the use of a teltac to go around the galaxy to gather the necessary materials. In that time, they had visited several planets within both Anubis's empire and Ra's domain. Most of them had been, thankfully, lightly guarded – though it did show him just how stretched both system lords were for resources and manpower in the war. Malek had clandestinely created tretonin using a freshly dead Jaffa's symbiote as the basis, though there was much he needed to do to 'clean' the initial tretonin up before it could be safely distributed or used by him, Aldwin. When that Jaffa had been killed, Aldwin had considered it very lucky that neither he nor Malek had been discovered in what they were doing.

Now though, they were finally flying to the planet that had the rarest of materials within the galaxy, naquadria. All the materials thus gathered and created were back on Abydos, but as far as the others except for Freya were concerned, this was another material-searching planet run. He hoped it would remain that way, for they did not need to advertise the fact that this was the only planet with naquadria.

To the present though, he said while nodding, “I'm fine.” A mental retort by his symbiote was shot through their shared mental space. “Really, Freya. I'm fine,” he insisted as he yanked the memory recall device off, ignoring the stinging pain that accompanied it. His symbiote did nothing to alleviate the pain, but he didn't expect her to. She certainly wasn't taking care of the low, pulsating headache had. “I just got caught up in some old memories,” he said, as Freya pulled her hand away, but remained crouched next to him.

He looked back up, slightly surprised to see concern lingering in both Martouf and Jolinar's eyes, though Jolinar was the first to leave and return to her station at the pilot's seat. Martouf had a sympathetic look upon his face, but eventually, he too returned to what he had been working on. However, Malek seemed to remain unconvinced and approached. Crouching, his friend briefly peered at him with a critical eye before asking, “Why did Asteria not wake you?”

 _ **I tried,**_ his symbiote groused. **_You somehow kept me from taking over your body._**

“She tried,” he answered, knowing exactly how contentious things were between Malek and Asteria. “The fault was mine, Malek--” he began, but then shook his head to prevent his friend from protesting on his yet again defense of Asteria. “The fault is mine. It happened with Leto as well, and our blending back then nearly ended up failing. Neither she nor I had known that my attempts to resist the system lord who killed my family while in captivity, resulted in the ability to temporarily block a symbiote from immediate blending.”

Malek looked unconvinced, and to his despair, so did Freya. “It's true,” he said, wondering how he was going to convince them of that fact.

“I have seen it happen before. Long before the Goa'uld became what they are today.”

He was not the only one to snap his eyes towards Apollo, whom had spoken those words. The Atanik was still sitting where he had been, but the demeanor that Apollo carried was not anything like he or the others had seen before. In the few days that had passed since it was decided to gradually ease the Atanik off of nish'ta, there had been momentary incidents where it seemed that Apollo was lucid. However, those moments were brief and punctuated by babbling of Ancient. Freya dutifully translated the language as best as she knew it, keeping it private so that only those who were Tok'ra knew about it. However, most of what the Ancient had said was incoherent and a repeat of what he had first uttered the day he nearly died from Ba'al's lack of foresight.

This... this was different, and completely coherent. Even Jolinar and Martouf had paused in what they were doing and had also adopted cautious stances. “I have seen it,” the Atanik said. “long before this war between Anubis and Ra began.” Apollo shifted slightly from where he was sitting, but did not attempt to get up and approach at all. There was a wary, almost cautious look, but surprisingly, it was not directed at the three of them, but at Jolinar and Martouf.

“Many of the hosts that the Goa'uld had taken back then had better mental resistance than most of the humans of today,” Apollo continued. “The Goa'uld found humans to be more mentally pliable and easier to maintain than previous hosts, but there has been on occasion, a human host who had successfully resisted for a few minutes. The Jaffa usually killed the host after extracting their Lord from the body.”

The Atanik then fell silent and curled up on himself. Silence reigned within the area until Martouf gave a deliberate cough and headed over towards the cargo bay, seemingly going to check on something. The words spoken by the Atanik were quite cold and callous, but Aldwin could not help but feel that there was more that Apollo wanted to say, but did not – due to the presence of Martouf and Jolinar within the ship. He glanced over towards Anise and saw her purse her lips before flicking her expressive eyes over towards him. She tilted her head slightly – a silent way of communicating that she too had picked up on the reticence of the non-drugged Atanik's words.

He felt her pat his arm before she got up, though to his slight annoyance, Malek remained. The memory recall device was suddenly plucked form his hand as Malek said, “No more for now, Aldwin. We will be exiting hyperspace within two hours and I need you to be clear-headed.”

There was a commanding quality within that tone, where before, Aldwin clearly remembered (even without the aid of the memory recall device) a more friendly and open tone. He felt a pang of regret as to what he and Leto had done to cause Malek to become like this, but immediately felt his symbiote admonish him.

 _ **I told you before to stop thinking like this,**_ she said. _**You can never change the past – you can only go forward and continue to build the future you want.**_

 _ **I am trying, but your attitude and animosity towards Malek is not helping,**_ he shot back, keeping a tight lock on his thoughts on just how hypocritical his symbiote's words to him were. She was telling him to go forward and towards the future, but yet she was the one who wanted to stay and serve a queen that by all rights, was a shadow of the Egeria Leto knew.

His symbiote was silent for a very long moment before she quietly stated, _**It is only because if he continues down this dangerous path he has chosen to follow, he will end up hurting not only himself and his host, but also you, Anise, and Freya.**_

It was Aldwin's turn to fall silent as he contemplated his symbiote's words. However, try as he might, he could not get a clearer answer from Asteria, even with prompting. Mentally, sighing, he left it alone for now, knowing that at the moment, Malek was right – he needed to stop diving into the torrential storm that was Leto's memories. Physically nodding, he said to Malek, “I understand.”

~◊~

_In the home reality, SGC..._

 

“Thank God for scanners and the digital age. And international contacts. Can't ever forget those contacts.”

Daniel looked up from his perusal of one of Freya's notebooks that contained research on other findings within the ziggurat to see Gant flounce in. The agent was carrying a laptop with her, but instead of directly going over to where he was, she closed the door. He raised an eyebrow, but received no answer except for her placing the laptop down across the table from him and opening it up.

She then turned the screen towards him, saying, “Thanks to my contacts within the Kremlin, I think I found out who Malek's host is.”

He peered at the screen as a frown slowly made its way across his lips. “ Alexei Nikolayevich Tereshkov. Doctorate in nuclear physics and engineering... Wow. Are you sure that that's him?”

“Positive,” Gant answered. “This was part of the personnel files that listed the other members of the 'lost Russian team' when they first went through their gate.”

“But...” he said, glancing back at the picture and of the impressive credentials that accompanied the profile.

“But... here's the stickler,” she said, dropping her voice down low enough that he had to lean in slightly to hear her. “We know that a prototype of the Trust operated from Russia and abducted individuals from all over the world to help them create or procure weapons from their various trips through their gate before we shut them down, right?” He nodded. “Turns out--” she jabbed at the screen “--I did some digging and it looks like Dr. Tereshkov was abducted by agents working for the Trust from the research lab he was working at in St. Petersburg.”

“But why would they want a nuclear physi---oh,” he began, then fell silent as he glanced at the profile again. It stated that Tereshkov was born in 1974, and he mentally calculated the possible point in time that the man could have been abducted. “I know it's possible to obtain a doctorate at that young of an age, but in nuclear physics _and_ engineering? The Trust didn't force him to make naquadah reactors, did they?”

Gant shook her head. “I don't know, but yeah, I had that same revelation as you did and dug some more. He was considered a genius, even by his peers. The reason why the international community didn't hear of him was because of what happened during the latter years of the Cold War. This is where it gets a little rough.”

She reached over and closed the laptop before folding her hands together and said, “He and his parents had been living in Leningrad... or what we know as St. Petersburg today. I cross-referenced a few things from my contacts in the US intelligence community, and found out that his parents were KGB agents. They were killed in 1989 by KGB agents from Moscow. At least that was the official story and what was stated on the reports.”

“So his parents were trying to defect?” he asked.

“No,” she answered. “Officially, yes, it looks like they were, but there were inconsistencies with various reports. MI6 was running an off-the-books joint operation in the area with several US black ops personnel at the time. Something went wrong with the operation and they were discovered by two KGB agents – a man and a woman.”

“So you're saying that MI6 and our people staged something to make it look like Moscow killed them?” he asked, running his hands over his face at just how horrific and terrible humans were to each other.

“Maybe, but there's one more thing.”

He dropped his hands from his face. “What now?”

“General O'Neill and Major Kowalski had been deployed with the other US black ops personnel into the region during that time.”

Daniel was not prone to swearing, but this time, he let loose a soft one before saying, “This is bad.”

Gant was silent for a moment, giving him time to absorb the revelation before saying, “It may not be. Considering witness reports of hearing people shout in perfect Moscow accents, it is kind of hard to believe that the KGB did not already have other local agents there who could receive a wire about the hit and do the job. Why would Moscow specifically send their people across the country for this?”

“So you're saying that because Russian was predominantly taught by those who had Moscow accents, then our people or MI6 could have killed Dr. Tereshkov's parents?” She nodded in agreement. “It could work – I mean, mimicking a perfect native language accent is difficult unless you grew up with the language, but cultivating a perfect _regional_ native language and slang to accompany it, is even more difficult. Most people that learn Russian learn it through Moscow natives or with the Moscow accent. Hell, even I learned it with a Moscow accent, but I still sound like a foreigner.”

“Says the man who fluently speaks at least 18 different languages,” she quipped, but became serious again after a moment. “We both know that General O'Neill isn't knowledgeable on languages, and Major Kowalski's profile had stated that he wasn't one for languages either. I think MI6 may have been the one to kill Tereshkov's parents.”

“But we don't know what he knows,” he summed up. “For all we know, he may have been told by his government what really happened to his parents.”

“Yeah, he may have,” she agreed. “Or he may not have. But one thing for sure is that he doesn't like Earth. Or at least the SGC, even though we've cleaned up and dismantled the Trust. Otherwise, why hide the fact that he's from Earth from everyone, including the Tok'ra?”

~◊~

_Alternate reality..._

 

It had been centuries since Malek had gone on a mission together with Jolinar and Lantash, and by proxy through the memories swimming in Aldwin's mind, Leto. That mission had been to extract Garshaw and Ren'au from within Ra's stronghold on Abydos. Tok'ra operatives were usually deployed either alone or in pairs if necessary. Any more than two Tok'ra during a mission made it difficult to conceal or to move fast when needed. He was well aware that the most recent time that the Tok'ra had allowed an actual team to deploy was when Jacob had assembled him, Xau, Brisa, and Risune together after Raisa. He knew how lucky they had been to only lose Brisa and no one else during the years the team fought against Anubis, Ba'al, and the other system lords.

Now though, with the teltac gently landing on the ground of the planet, still cloaked and undetected by the Goa'uld who ruled over this planet – Thanos. Anise, having taken over from Freya for this portion of the mission as she had done several times before, switched seats with Jolinar, who had risen from the pilot's chair. Apollo slid into the co-pilot's seat, surprisingly looking coherent, but remained quiet. It seemed that even with the nish'ta additction almost gone, the Atanik was not about to do anything adverse to them – at least that was the sense that Malek got as he punched the buttons to lower the cargo ship's ramp.

Emerging into the cool, breezy weather, he stretched his senses as he cautiously raised his zat'nik'tel up and panned it around. He could see nothing as Aldwin, Lantash, and Jolinar came down the ramp after him. As the ramp raised back up, the four of them proceeded onwards.

It was surprising just how well they all silently read and covered each other as they swiftly and silently made their way through the woods, and into the more 'industrialized' area of the town. They were headed towards a particular facility. The facility they targeted was a part of the research area that they knew from scouting reports that Thanos built and controlled. The only thing that those in this reality did not know was what was contained in the facility. However, with the scouting reports also came topographical, geological, and thermal maps that had given him ample information to pinpoint the area where they would be extracting naquadria.

He knew this planet as Langara, having been informed by the Council after he returned to the fold of the Tok'ra community, of what happened to the planet that contained naquadria. However, in this dimension, the planet had no official designation and was only informally known as Thanos's domain within Anubis's empire. The villages that dotted the research area seemed indicative that the people of Langara were not as well off as they had been in his dimension.

They reached their destination with no complications – here too, it seemed that resources to properly govern and patrol were scarce. Pushing that thought aside, he saw Lantash take up a watch position just outside of the facility. He, Jolinar, and Aldwin entered the facility and quietly made their way down several halls. There were no other footsteps other than their own, but the place was quite dim.

At a large intersection, however, he stopped and heard Jolinar peel away to clear the other side of the area from a different hall first. Aldwin remained behind him, watching his back. A few moments later, he felt a tap on his left shoulder from Jolinar. That indicated that the way was clear. Aldwin left first and hurried towards a particular entrance down the dim hall. Two breaths later, he peeled off from the concrete wall where he had been pressed up against, zat'nik'tel pointed at the far entrance down the hall, and followed him.

He saw him cautiously press a series of buttons on the panel before the door slid open to allow them into the chamber where they would be tunneling into the nearest vein of raw, unprocessed naquadria. In its raw form, it looked very much like naquadah, though the sheen was a little different. However, since it was so scarce and small, there were veins of naquadah that usually surrounded it, providing a layer of insulation against heat and the radioactivity of the element. While both elements reacted adversely to heat, naquadah required a higher heat to explode than naquadria.

It would have been easier for them to tunnel into a wall in the facilities that already had naquadria safely tucked away in layers that was much more in isolation than naquadah. However, their scan of the facilities showed that they were too well guarded. Thanos had installed pressure, seismic, and acoustic sensors all over the floors, walls, and roof. The Goa'uld was quite paranoid – and rightly so – of anyone trying to steal his naquadria. Hence their more clandestine, and longer route for extraction.

He peeked in, clearing the chamber with his eyes and briefly enhancing the hearing of his host for a moment. Pushing into the dark chamber, he heard Aldwin follow him in, wasting no time as he saw him holster his zat'nik'tel and immediately pull out the datapad that Freya had loaned them. Keeping an eye on the door and a little beyond it, Malek watched him pan up and down the floor with the scanner from the datapad through peripheral vision. A moment later, he saw him put away the datapad before taking out two crystals from the satchel he carried and smash them into a section on the floor.

The stone-eating crystals were more luminous than he anticipated. He squinted as the brightness of them initially digging through the floor and into the foundation and bedrock slowly faded. Looking around, he could still see no security sensors, and try as he might, he could not hear any shouts or alarms. Lantash and Jolinar, standing further down the halls as sentries and lookouts had also not shouted any alerts. They were still safe for now.

As the crunching sound of the stone-eater faded, he felt a tap on his right shoulder and turned to see that Aldwin was silently holding out the datapad and a black-red crystal. That crystal, though quite forbidding and beautiful to look at, had been made from what Aldwin had dug into long ago memories of Leto. It was created specifically to extract a chunk of naquadria-laced naquadah. Malek did not know what the original purpose of the crystal had been, but for the purposes of this, he was not curious enough to want to know.

He silently holstered his zat'nik'tel before taking the crystal and datapad. He was no geologist or structural engineer as Aldwin was, but Alexei was a nuclear physicist and engineer, and knew what amount of naquadria within naquadah were needed. That, and combined with his knowledge of chemicals made it more prudent that he and his host go down into the carved cavern to extract the necessary portion needed.

Nodding his thanks, he was briefly surprised with a double tap of two fingers on his right forearm – a silent code of communication that he remembered Lysana and Aldwin employing during a time where they had gone on a mission together. It was a silent 'good luck' that had been said to him. Nodding again, he stepped over to where the maw of the carved tunnel now was, and took a deep breath.

There were some residual light from the crystal itself, but he trusted Aldwin's work to modify the crystals to consume only the limestone that surrounded the naquadah and naquadria. The way down was steep, but he quickly reached the bottom with little complications. It was dim, warmer than he liked, but he could still see – and the cavern that stretched before him was magnificent.

The soft glow from the stone-eating crystals were trapped in between the small stalactites and stalagmites. He wound his way through them, seeing larger shadowed columns and spaces jutting out – these were the naquadah and naquadria elements left behind. Raising the datapad, he made sure the settings were correct before panning the scanner within the pad all over the exposed naquadah. Though he could feel the naquadah reacting to what was running through both his host and his own blood, detecting naquadria was not as simple as standing close to a naquadah shaft and touching it. He had no idea what naquadria felt like.

The pinging of the datapad showed him an infrared image of the cavern – hot and relatively cool spots through spectral imaging. However, where the stone-eating crystals had consumed the limestone, there was residual heat left from it that was not hot enough to cause an explosive reaction in naquadah. The limestone-eating crystals had a heat signature that looked distinct through the datapad, which became his calibration as he continued to pan the datapad scanner up and down the naquadah-rich areas.

Finally, he found a vein that looked to be promising. Unfortunately, it was near a completely exposed vein of naquadria – radioactive and deadly, but only if one physically touched it. If it were not for the dimness in the cavern, coupled with the strange appearance of the element on the scanner, he would have never seen it. It was quite apparent now that naquadria felt almost the same as naquadah. Holstering the datapad, he positioned the black-red crystal perpendicular to the shaft he wanted to extract and slammed the crystal into the naquadah.

The chewing and hammering sound the strange crystal made to wrap itself in a sphere around the area was softer than he expected. However, it was still grating in such a confined space. Aldwin had told him that the crystal would only chip away like a hammer and not liquefy the naquadah or naquadria. Liquefying both elements after they had been extracted would come later – and that was the most dangerous part of creating the explosive. It was also what had created the glowing blue color within the first design that he had given to Aldwin to use on Netu.

 _ **The Council had not been happy with us for doing that while within the tunnels,**_ his host said, amused by the memory that had surfaced.

 _ **We shall be in space this time around,**_ he dryly answered. _**Slightly safer, but no less dangerous--**_

A sudden, violent rocking motion jolted both him and his host, as stalactites suddenly dropped down around him causing him to lose his footing and stumble into the nearest wall. He hissed in pain as he felt his host echo the sentiment as his right arm painfully slammed into the wall, and his exposed hand contacted against the exposed vein of naquadria. Shutting off the pain receivers around that area as he immediately pulled both his arm and hand away, he could feel the degenerating effects of radioactivity beginning to slowly eat away at the surface of his skin.

However, he could not afford to repair the damage done at the moment as another violent rocking motion quickly followed the first one, sending more dust and stalactites to the ground. “Malek!” he heard Aldwin shout from above the cavern. “Forget the naquadria!”

He had already stumbled back to where the stone encasement was folding in on itself – a sign that the crystal was almost done gathering. Ducking as yet another tremor hit, it didn't feel like earthquakes at all and more like bombardment of sorts. Had Thanos's people discovered them?

Wasting no more time on that thought, he snatched the encased naquadah and naquadria, which was no larger than the size of his fist. It was heavier than expected, but because the elements were in their raw form, it was to be expected. Sliding the encasement into a lead-lined pouch and securing it, he ran as fast as he could, ducking and dodging, as sharp fragments bit into him.

He could see the cavern slope up and Aldwin near the steep incline to the entrance, slamming another crystal into the side of the incline. An unusual circular bloom of crystals swept over a portion of the entrance, temporarily stabilizing that area as Malek ran into the area. While the tremors continued, the stalactites that had been falling seemed to hold for now as he followed Aldwin and hurriedly climbed up.

Just as he was pulled up by his left arm, up and over the lip of the tunnel-cavern, both of them were sent sprawling to the ground by something that exploded a little too close to the area. The cavern collapsed even before the shaking had stopped, but neither of them wasted time to clear the ringing in their ears as they scrambled up and ran out of there.

“Orbital bombardment!” he heard the muffled shout of Jolinar as they caught up to her.

“Thanos?” he asked as the three of them continued onwards towards where Lantash had set up watch.

“Unknown, but it certainly is not Thanos,” Jolinar curtly said as they burst outside of the facility into a scene of chaos, fire, the dead, collapsed buildings, and many debris. The shouts of Jaffa and of civilians fleeing and running for the lives filled the air as the screams of orbital bombardments continued to wail all around them. None of them bothered to unholster their zat'nik'tels – the Jaffa were not even paying attention to them or to the fleeing civilians for the matter. Thanos's Jaffa were apparently more concerned about saving their own lives than anyone else.

Retracing their route back to where their cloaked teltac was, proved quite difficult for downed buildings, trees, and crowds blocking their way kept them from escaping in a timely manner. It was Lantash who finally got fed up enough to start methodically climbing over the debris and fallen structures. Seeing no other choice, they followed. As did a few civilians who were not as injured as their comrades.

Malek could feel a creeping pain start to radiate from where his hand had contacted against the naquadria, but he dared not look at it. Instead, he blunted some more pain receptors along the arm and sent a surge of his own naquadah-laced blood into the area to try to keep the creeping destruction of the radiation at bay. They needed to get to the teltac faster for he _hoped_ that someone had thought to carry a healing device within their supplies.

The bombardment didn't even stop after they had climbed over the last of the fallen structures and ran towards the wooded areas. Now it was about jumping over fallen branches, exploded trunks, and leafy things on fire. But, in a clearing that looked to not be as affected by the bombardment, the teltac was suddenly uncloaked as the entrance to it opened. Anise, still in control, had popped her head out before ducking back in. However, in her place, Apollo appeared with an active staff weapon.

He nearly pulled out his zat'nik'tel just as the Atanik fired several bursts from the weapon. The golden bolts sizzled over their heads and exploded behind them. Briefly looking back, he saw that several Jaffa had been running them, though it looked like they had merely been trying to flee as well, rather than stop them. He had absolutely no sympathy for the Jaffa and followed the others up into the teltac.

Even before the cargo door had been closed, the ship was already rising in the air. As Malek made his way towards the cockpit, a few more bombardments shuddered around them. “Two fleets jumped into orbit, already trading fire with each other when they arrived,” Anise stated as Jolinar took over the co-pilot station from Apollo while Lantash had gone immediately to the engine room to monitor the systems there.

“Osiris and Leto,” Apollo supplied.

As the blues and white clouds of the sky gave way to the inkiness of space, Malek could see a vicious battle being waged between the two fleets of the system lords. One of the fleets was nearer to the planet than the other, and looked to be trapped in the gravity well of the planet. However, before they could fly further away, an unusual shudder ran through the ship.

“What...” Jolinar was not the only one to whisper in puzzlement as Anise struggled to keep the engines forward. Jolinar immediately pulled up several screens and scanned them before saying, “Gravity well generator coming from the mothership nearest to the planet. Osiris is trying to pull Leto's fleet in!”

“Let me take over, Anise,” Aldwin said, going to the pilot's chair as Anise vacated the seat.

“Malek, do you know how to shunt power from non-critical areas to the engine?” Lantash asked, coming out from the engine room.

“Yes,” he answered, heading over to a small console near the lifepods console and yanked the panel loose.

Lantash continued to order both Anise and Apollo to modify the craft to push as much power to the engines, but Malek was not paying much attention to him. As he pulled several tiny crystals within the console out and placed them into other areas, he tried to ignore just how blistered his right hand was beginning to look like. He could feel his host's body starting to overheat. Sending another burst of naquadah-laced blood to the radiation source, he dared not remove the block on the pain receptors that had now been set near his shoulder. He could feel his host struggling to stay awake, but the sickness that was slowly spreading across their shared blood was beginning to become too much for his host to bear.

“No...”

It was the horror-filled denial being uttered by Aldwin that caused not only him to snap out of his fugue, but also the others to momentarily pause in their work. He looked over to see that Aldwin had removed a hand from the maneuvering mechanism of the cargo ship and had called up a scan of Leto's mothership that was trying to also escape the artificial gravity well.

“That is...” he could not help but whisper in horror as he too saw what exactly was built within the mothership. Coincidence? He thought not, for it was not a stretch to think that this particular weapon once built, could be built as a prototype again by the same hands. And he was very familiar with what the prototype had done in his dimension.

“Shunt all power, including life support to shields, now!” Aldwin stated as out in the inky blackness of space, a tiny, but sun-blinding glow was building below Leto's mothership. “Leto has built another prototype similar to the Eye of Ra, and it's powering up!”

Even before Aldwin had finished his statement, Malek had already abandoned his station and raced to the engine room. He yanked several casings out and started to rearrange the crystals just as Lantash also appeared and began to work on the other side of the engine compartment. However, neither of them even got half-way towards rerouting power before Aldwin shouted from the cockpit, “Brace!”

Both of them barely lifted their hands up from the crystals and dove towards the cargo bay just as the familiar sensation of the electro-magnetic pulse that came as an after effect of the weapon firing caused everything on the ship to fry. Sparks and electric arcs danced all over the place before the _bang-bang_ sounds of the engines exploding due to the overload, along with the acrid smell of smoke filled the air. The shut down of the artificial gravity on the ship caused his host's stomach to flip-flop, adding to the queasiness that both he and his host were already feeling. He heaved and spat out something.

Shunting as much of the ill feeling away, he pushed off the nearest wall and followed Lantash out into the cockpit. They had been much closer to the Eye of Ra prototype than the last time he had been near it – and the evidence was all in front of them. Everything except for life support, which was nominally heavily shielded, even on such a small ship such as this, was shut down. Attempts to get things restarted or even brought up to project on the cockpit pane was not working.

Outside, they had drifted enough so that they were slowly spinning towards the planet, falling back down again, now that Osiris's gravity well was completely obliterated. In fact, it looked like the system lord's entire ship was vaporized... along with a big chunk of the landmass directly below what was left of the system lord's fleet.

“How are we on life support, Jolinar?” Lantash asked, floating towards her.

“Unknown,” Jolinar answered.

“The consoles are overloaded, but we can still create a bypass--” Malek began, but just he felt his host slip into unconsciousness, an overwhelming sensation of a tightened chest and a lack of air struck him. Tiny black spots appeared in his vision as he coughed, but as his control over his host's body slipped, those black spots started to become larger. He heard someone shout his name, but that voice seemed so fuzzily far away.

 

~*~*~*~

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

 

“Don't touch him! He's been poisoned by radiation!”

Aldwin's sharp warning startled Anise, but she managed to grab onto the back of the co-pilot's seat to stop herself from floating over towards Malek. Lantash, Apollo, and Jolinar had also paused, but it was Jolinar who looked back at Aldwin with accusative eyes and demanded, “How?”

“I don't know the exact circumstances,” Aldwin began, pushing off from where he was, but instead of directly going towards them, he made a circular circuit around before pausing near the console that Malek had been working on earlier. “But I think he may have touched an exposed vein of an element called naquadria while down below in the cavern.”

“Naquadria?” Lantash questioned.

“What we need to do right now is send a distress signal,” Aldwin said, ignoring the question as he floated to where the supply crates were and rummaged through them, looking for something. Whatever it was, he didn't find it, though Anise suspected that it was a healing device – she did not remember seeing it at all within their supplies. She heard Aldwin softly curse before saying, “Leto's fleet is still intact, and if she is an ally of Egeria, she will render us aid.”

“Are you blind?” Jolinar accused, “we do not have any sort of power--”

“Except for life support,” Apollo jumped in. “We will need to create a bypass and reroute power from it and to the distress beacon.”

“But--” Lantash began.

“We have no choice!” Aldwin angrily said. “We're falling down into the planet, and even with life-support, there's not enough power in that system to even get the engines beyond twenty-percent! That is not enough to combat the planet's gravity!”

Anise was not the only one to flinch at just how pained and furious Aldwin sounded. She had never heard such a rawness within his voice. However, he was right – they were in desperate need of help, and the closest system lord that could possibly help or just blow them out of the sky was sitting in space so close to them. “He is correct,” she said, floating over to where Aldwin. However, she didn't get to do what she usually did to help calm her fellow Tok'ra down – that is to place a calming hand upon their arm. Aldwin had immediately shied away.

Trying her best to ignore the slight, she continued to say, “Egeria knows that we have departed for these coordinates. If we do not return within the next few days, she will muster resources to search for us and will find debris of not only Osiris's ships, but also of Leto's. If Leto does not help and blows us up, or ignores us, you can be sure that she will seek answers.”

There was a sharpness in Aldwin's eyes, but he did not say another word and floated over to where Malek was. However, much to her horror, he reached out and grabbed a hold of Malek and gently lowered him closer to the floor. She was glad she was not the only one to splutter at the action before Aldwin said in a calmer, but still angry tone, “I pulled him to safety while we were still in the facility after he had retrieved the element. I too, may have contracted the radiation poisoning.”

“Please,” Anise pleaded, feeling sorrow well up within her as she felt her host wail in despair. She didn't know enough about cargo ships and how they operated to even begin trying to create a bypass for the life support power. She and her host could not live through this yet again – could not watch Aldwin die again, along with Malek and his host as well. She spun slightly to look at Jolinar and Lantash. “Please, do not let my friends die. I cannot...”

“Apollo, open that panel there and pull out the blue and green crystals,” Jolinar ordered a moment later. “Bring them to the escape pod console. We will have to create the bypass through this console, since the engine room is gone.”

“Thank you,” she said as she wiped her eyes of the tears that had formed and floated off. “What can I do to help?”

Under Jolinar's guidance, they tore apart most of the panels and consoles that had not been critically damaged. Rerouting the power from the heavily shielded life support area took some time, but soon, a beacon was being broadcasted. The temperature within the teltac was steadily dropping with each agonizing minute that passed. Anise could see a sheen of sweat slowly beading off of Malek's host body, the radiation that was slowly tearing both him and his host apart causing his temperature to rise. From Aldwin, she saw that he had placed a small cloth on Malek's forehead. It had been soaked with as much non-iced water from their supplies as possible.

It felt like a lifetime before they saw signs of a possible rescue through the fogged and ice-laced cockpit windows. Something was blinking out there and a few moments later, a shudder ran through the ship before they felt a forward momentum tug them somewhere. Minutes passed as they cautiously moved towards where the ramp to lead into the cargo bay was, though it was surprisingly Jolinar who waved away from crowding the staging area. Jolinar's weapon was drawn and pointed towards the hatch.

Lantash positioned himself next to Jolinar on the other side of the entrance, waving Anise and Apollo towards one of the corners of the cargo bay. The Atanik did not have a weapon, but he had transformed back into his cat-like form. It did not escape Anise's notice that with the Atanik crouched this close to her, there was a very odd sound from Akesios's breathing – he sounded more like a cat purring. However, from what she had learned during the times when Apollo/Akesios was coherent and not under the remaining influence of the nish'ta, calling the Ataniks 'cats' was most likely insulting.

As for Aldwin, he had lowered himself as best as he could towards the floor, keeping a steady and firm hand upon Malek's chest. His zat'nik'tel was out in his other hand and pointed towards the hatch. They were sure to pass back into gravity, and thus, while the rest of them could steady themselves and drop to the floor with relatively no harm – Malek did not have that luxury and needed to be as close to the floor as possible. A few minutes later, another shudder ran through the ship, and Anise could feel both her host's stomach flip-flop with the familiar sensation of gravity returning as she lightly landed upon the floor.

The clunks and bangs of something external either being latched, adjusted or just crashing into their cargo ship was quite loud, but it was safe to say that they had indeed been rescued. By what ship and whom, that was another question. They could be within Leto's fleet, within her flagship, or perhaps it had taken them so long to get a signal out and for a rescue to happen, a passing ship belonging to the enemy or to scavengers may have picked their signal up. None of them knew, and as the clanks of the cargo bay door being manually opened rang throughout the hull, her hand slipped down to the handle of carving crystal knife she carried.

The door opened with a hiss and _drip-drip-drip_ of the heavy condensation of water trickling down the sides. To their surprise, it was not Jaffa who entered, but Leto herself. Jolinar, Aldwin, and Lantash immediately lowered their weapons as soon as she swept in and glanced around, while Anise removed her hand from the hilt of the knife. There was also a very distinct crack and crackle of bones next to her as Akesios transformed back into his human form.

Anise also noticed that her eyes immediately settled upon the prone form of Malek before she stated, “I offer my sincere apologies on what damage have I caused to all of you and your ship. If it would please you, allow me to render assistance in its repairs and provide all of you with food and shelter until the repairs are complete.”

“We accept the offer, Leto,” Jolinar stated. “However, we are in immediate need of your sarcophagus. Our companions here --” she gestured to Malek and Aldwin “--have been gravely injured by radiation poisoning from one of the elements we had retrieved.”

“My sarcophagus is currently inoperable,” Leto stated, though Anise found it slightly surprising to see genuine concern in her eyes. “Damage from my fight with Osris and my subsequent escape from the battle outside of the Dakara system has made it inoperable. However, I do have healing devices that may stem the damage, though it will take a while to heal any type of radiation damage.

“Show me where they are,” Aldwin immediately stated, picking Malek up.

The system lord immediately spun around and quickly left the cargo hold. Anise sprang up and followed both her and Aldwin out. She could hear Apollo, Jolinar, and Lantash follow, but did not pay much attention to them. Out in the hangar bay where their cargo ship had been berthed, several rows of Jaffa lined the area, but more were tending to the repairs of damaged gliders and areas around the mothership. She was surprised to catch a glimpse of Qetesh among her own personal escort of Leto's Jaffa. The Queen Consort was curiously looking at them with shrewd eyes, but Anise ignored her for now – putting aside her own curiosity as to why Qetesh was here.

However, it was Lantash who asked Leto, “They have already launched an assault on Dakara then?”

“Were supposed to have,” Leto answered in a short, crisp tone. “We were barely within the Dakara system when we were ambushed by the combined fleets of Osiris, Ammonet, Chronos, Apophis, and Anubis. They somehow knew how many ships we were attacking with, along with where we would approach Dakara from.”

“So you fled,” Jolinar accused.

“On the contrary, Jolinar,” Leto said, “I did not. I was ordered to by Lord Ra himself. He sent his Queen Consort over to my ship and told me to take her to safety.”

“Why?” Lantash asked, as Anise glanced back to see him narrow his eyes slightly in suspicion.

“She is with child.”

Anise was glad she was not the only one to pause in her steps for a moment, as she saw Aldwin hesitate for a moment as well, the burden of carrying Malek in his arms barely even shifting his weight. “Harcesis?!” Aldwin whispered in horror.

“Abomination,” Jolinar growled.

“She is under my protection, as are all of you,” Leto immediately said, stopping and turning around, eyes blazing in warning, but not glowing. “If any harm comes to her or to the child, your own protection here will be forfeit.”

Anise jumped in, saying, “We understand, Leto.” She hoped that her words was enough to diffuse the sudden tension that had escalated. “No harm shall come to Qetesh or the child she is carrying.”

“You know that child is an abomination, Leto,” Jolinar continued, looking quite angry. “You said so yourself many years ago that a Harcesis would be the downfall of all of us in our fight against Anubis. And now, you are protecting one?!”

Leto didn't even deign to give an answer as she turned back around and resumed walking down the halls towards where Anise hoped was a healing chamber. It was unsaid, but she had picked it up, wondering if Jolinar and Lantash had also realized the unspoken words as well. Someone had betrayed their attack on Dakara, and the fact that Qetesh was with child. Osiris pursuing Leto all the way to the other side of the galaxy was proof of that.

While she knew that neither her nor her friends had done so, she could not speak for Jolinar, Lantash, or to her chagrin, Apollo. While Leto was willing to provide them shelter for now, Anise was not ignorant enough to know that they were under close scrutiny. They would be watched carefully, now that they knew that there was a Harcesis on her ship. Anubis, for all they knew of the Ancients, could theoretically posses or jump into the child, once it was born – and that would most definitely spell the doom of every one of them in this reality.

~◊~

_Several hours later..._

 

It was Asteria's sudden start in their shared space that caused Aldwin to look up from where he was sitting, half-asleep and half-listlessly waiting until the countdown in between treatments with the healing device was up. By his and his symbiote's count, there were still about three hours before he could attempt another round of treatment on Malek and Alexei. After that round, he would have to wake Anise up so that she could continue the treatments while he rested. It would remain this way until the two were completely healed and cured of the radiation poisoning. He didn't know how long it would take, but it didn't matter to him – he was determined not to lose either of them.

He had been cleared from radiation poisoning as soon as a healing device had been panned over him by Lantash. Anise had initially started treatment on Malek by the time he had been cleared, but he had opted to stay in the healing chamber to take over from her when she became tired. As for Jolinar and Lantash, they had generously offered to take shifts as well – this crisis seemingly melting some of the stiffness and coldness in both of their demeanor towards him and his friends.

However, with all that had happened, he suggested that they _discreetly_ find out everything possible about what happened leading up to Dakara and of the reason why Ra would entrust his pregnant queen to another system lord. Something about the recent revelations did not sit well with him... or his symbiote for the matter. As for Apollo... well, he had seen him wander in and out of the chamber, but the Atanik mostly kept to himself.

“I apologize for disturbing your rest, Aldwin,” Leto murmured. “But may I speak to you and Asteria in private?”

He shook himself out of his reverie as he glanced back towards where Anise was half-sitting and half-laying on the divan, deep asleep. He then looked over towards where Malek was resting, seeing his chest move up and down, still breathing and oh-so-slowly healing, but only just. “I would rather stay here, Leto,” he answered, shaking his head slightly. “Whatever you may say to us, I will not keep it from my friends.”

The Goa'uld cast him a rather blank look before silently nodding. Seeing that she was willing to acquiesce to his request, he gestured with an open arm for her to sit next to him. She gracefully sat, with the movement reminding him of the memories he had of his cousin, Ailin, who also sat as she did now. He and his cousin had never been close, but they had helped each other escape Goa'uld captivity. Judging from what Egeria had told him about this dimension's Aldwin and Ailin, it seemed that the two had been close – namely because their symbiotes, Asteria and Leto, had been sac siblings.

Seeing that she was not going to immediately speak but wished to silently observe, pray, contemplate – he didn't know what she was doing except that her grief-stricken gaze was upon Malek, Aldwin focused his attention elsewhere. It was very clear from his conversations with Egeria that there had been an intensely close, intimate bond between both host and symbiotes when it came to this dimension's Leto and Malek. He could only speculate that Leto and Malek had been the equivalent of his dimension's Jolinar and Lantash. Though he knew that his Leto had never formed as intense of a bond with his dimension's Malek, there was still affection. That affection that had remained even when the Tok'ra had taken Alexei as a host.

His Leto was gone now, with only her memories – both good and bad – remaining in him. But the fondness for Malek and Alexei had remained – had grown and bled from her to him. It was now a fiber of his very being, and he knew that it was a point of contention between him and Asteria. Upon the avalanche of Leto's memories, he had mistaken his new symbiote's sudden jealousy for sibling rivalry – jealousy when a brother or sister was showered with accolades and loved by friends and family, while he or she was ignored. It wasn't a stretch to think that way, for Asteria had been stuck in a preservation unit for nearly two thousand years, while Leto had actively fought with the Tok'ra. Asteria the Warrior and Egeria's personal protector had been tasked with babysitting. Her sister, Leto the Technologist, got to do everything that she had wanted to do.

He wasn't wrong in his assumption, but he had left out a factor in that assumption. It was only after Asteria had stated to him that she wanted to stay in this dimension, did he find out the whole truth. His and Leto's affection for Malek and Alexei had bled into Asteria as well, and starved for contact, it had twisted into something ugly – something self-destructive. Something that was between obsessive love and hatred. Try as she might, Asteria could not get rid of it, and the only solution after everything was to remain here – to devote herself to this Egeria, to serve and accumulate her own experiences so that she did not have to live with the heavy weight of her sister's.

This was something that he knew he could not tell either Malek or Alexei, no matter how much he wanted to. All he could say to give them some reason was the fact that in a matter of perspective, it was true that Asteria was jealous of Leto. This was something borne out of those Goa'uld who defected, who did not have the genetics for compassion as the Tok'ra did. This grotesque love-hate feeling was something that drove the system lords to fight, kill, and enslave millions.

“I wish to inquire about these,” Leto quietly stated, bringing him out of his musings as he saw her reach into the right sleeve of the elegant yet simple attire she wore. His own clothes, torn, burnt, and ruined from their escape from the planet had been exchanged for clean, elegant ones that matched the simplicity that Leto also wore. Anise had also been offered an exchange of clothing, as had Lantash, Jolinar, and Apollo. Malek was currently clothed in light material clothing that were designed to not interfere as much with the healing as possible.

He saw her pull out three light rose-colored vials and held them in the palm of her hand towards him. “I found, retrieved, and hid these before Queen Consort Qetesh was able to find them. Please rest assure that the cocoon surroundings the elements you retrieved are still safe in the lead-lined container.” She paused for a moment before saying, “These are tretonin. Or at least the beginnings of tretonin that is unrefined.”

_**Do not lie to her, Aldwin,**_ his symbiote cautioned. _**You know as well as I do that she has always been able tell if someone is lying to her, no matter how silver-tongued they are.**_

“You are correct,” he cautiously said, wishing now that he didn't ask to remain here. If something were to go wrong, he had just put all of them in danger.

She nodded before looking over towards the far end of the chamber. “Jaffa, kree,” she commanded not in a shouted tone, but one stern and loud enough that whomever was out there could hear it. Anise did not even stir, but Aldwin was starting to become quite uneasy when two Jaffa, both carrying staff weapons, entered. As they approached, he nearly got up from where he was sitting, but then frowned as both he and Asteria sensed something rather odd.

Two Jaffa, dressed in identical armor, stopped before them at attention, but it was the distinct _lack_ of a symbiote incubation pouch on one of the Jaffa that surprised him. In fact, there was a scar of one, while the other still had an incubation pouch. For the one without, he could feel no symbiote, no naquadah – by rights, the Jaffa should have been dead without the constant immunity and life-extending properties that an incubating symbiote gave.

He frowned, but the answer to his unspoken question was given as Leto said, “A quarter of my Jaffa are on tretonin that was secretly created by my dimension's Malek, before he died. This substance allows my Jaffa to survive without symbiotes, thereby allowing this cycle of system lord and slave to begin breaking. They manufacture it themselves, all the while keeping appearances up until it is time.”

Aldwin was stunned. Even his symbiote had no words to say as they both sat there, in the physical world and in the shared space in their mind, trying to make sense of Leto's words. He wanted to deny it, wanted to think that it was all a lie, but there was something in Leto's eyes, something that spoke to him through his own memories of another her that told him that she was not lying. “Are... are you...?” he began, but felt himself at a loss of words.

“Tok'ra, yes,” she answered in a simple tone. “Tok'anubis, yes. As I suspect you, along with Malek and Freya are as well.” He remained silent at that. She continued, saying, “It is not only your behavior, but also that of your companions that give it away. You clearly do not act like those whom we had known, but yet you do not act as system lords do, even when your symbiotes take over.”

He remained silent for a few moments longer before folding his hands together and looking at her square in the eyes, doing his best to ignore the Jaffa standing before them. “We are Tok'ra. And yes, we have defeated Anubis in our dimension.”

“But to have done so, you must have also defeated Ra,” she said, “and to do so here, should he not honor his promise, while hoping that Anubis can be defeated will require you to plant diversions. One of which is this tretonin prototype.”

He glanced over towards the Jaffa who had not moved and were staring out towards the distance, seemingly not even listening to their conversation. However, the fact that she was outright stating everything in front of her Jaffa told him that she trusted them implicitly – symbiote or not. She, a hidden rebel against the system lords, had the allegiance of symbiote-dependent Jaffa within her ranks, and those on tretonin. It was a miracle that she had achieved the impossible with her secret alliance.

“I understand if you do not trust me, Aldwin,” she said, drawing his attention back towards her. She glanced over at her Jaffa before saying, “Jaffa, kree.” The guards left, and she rose up from her seat, but left the vials on top of where she had sat. “I will not harm any of you while you remain here in this dimension. I only ask that you keep my secret safe as I have kept your true allegiance safe. This is my war, not your war. I have already lost too much to this war and do not want to see any of you lose your lives here.”

“Then why, Leto?” he asked. “Why do you not return to Egeria's side? She was our queen in our dimension. The one who birthed the movement.”

Leto's gaze was unreadable as she briefly looked down at him before looking back up, seemingly staring at some faraway object. “She is not the Egeria you think you know.” Her gaze returned to him as she continued to say, “No doubt that you may have already heard that the host that she inhabits was a trap set by Nirrti, and that she was sterilized as a result of the trap. No doubt you had also heard how this dimension's Malek and Asteria, along with their hosts perished as well, while carrying out Egeria's revenge against Nirrti.”

“Yes,” he answered. “Egeria told us as much.”

“Such a waste of life,” Leto angrily whispered, looking towards Malek's prone but breathing form. The rebel system lord looked down again before lifting her head back up and saying, “When Egeria took her new host, she unwittingly became one of Anubis's agents.”

_**Lies!**_ he heard his symbiote rage, but not attempt to take over as she had done during the summit.

Even without Asteria taking over, it was evident on his face about how he felt about that admission, as he stood up. Leto then said, “Why do you not think Abydos was not destroyed already? It is the closest outpost to Tau'ri, yet with all of the strength that Anubis possesses, why would he not have destroyed the most robust of spy networks when it was so vulnerable?”

He had to admit, she did have a point. He could also feel Asteria's very reluctant acceptance of this simple explanation. “Is that why everyone shunned her? Because you told the other system lords that story? Is that who you suspect has betrayed Ra's alliance; betrayed the attack on Dakara? You claim to be Tok'ra, and Tok'anubis, but in either case, you ran. You ran to ally yourself with Ba'al, with the others, and you left her alone, rather than try to help her!”

“How could I?” she said, her tone cold and familiar to him. “She sent everyone that I had ever loved on suicide missions!”

“Then why did you not already kill her with your Eye of Ra prototype?” he challenged. “It's destructive power can do more than just rip through shielding and obliterate motherships. It can destroy chappa'ai.”

“How do you know that?” she demanded, narrowing her eyes.

“Because my Leto and I built it as well in my dimension,” he said. “I was host to her before she gave her life to ensure that the Tok'ra had a future.”

Her eyes widened briefly before she nodded, “Then that explains why a spherical containment crystal resides in a lead-lined pouch. I had not made that type of crystal or used it in a thousand years. I am not familiar with the other crystals that I found in the satchel you carried though.”

“I am not inclined to tell you what they are,” he bluntly stated, folding his arms over his chest.

“Very well then,” she said, inclining her head slightly. “I will not press you for details. I only ask that you consider my words carefully, Aldwin. You as well, Asteria. Neither of you are the cousin and sibling that I treasured, but my statement still stands: I will not harm any of you while you remain here in this dimension. You have my word.”

~◊~

_Later..._

 

Malek awoke to a rather disconcerting feeling running through him, though he soon realized the source of it. He was so used to being in control when waking up that this was the first time in a very long while that he had woken up to find that his host was control. He blinked as he flooded the shared space of their minds, delighting his host with his recovery, for neither he nor his host feel an inch sick or in pain. He did feel a ravenous hunger, though he could see and begin to feel his host sating that hunger... with a rather amusing gusto in consuming the food that was already being offered to them.

_**You start choking and I am not going to help you, Alexei,**_ he teased as he felt his host swallow mostly whole, rather than take the time to chew, their rather tasty meal.

_**After all that we've been through, Malek,**_ his host answered, slowly down only slightly to finally properly chew instead of inhaling food. _**I am surprised that you would rather die from choking on food than a more heroic death.**_

A rather amusing image popped up in their shared space – that of a long ago memory he had of Nerus and the system lord's rather unusual appetite for food. Back then, Malek was hoping that the annoying system lord would have eaten himself to death. But, it had been good to hear from the Council that the Goa'uld's fate was a little more ironically delicious.

_**I yield,**_ he said, though he did feel his host start to slow down, and heard the echoes of Freya's exclamation for them to slow down in their eating. Letting his host take care of the physical world for now, he stretched out and began to observe everything around him. He didn't recognize the chamber they were in, but he certainly did recognize the decorations – it seemed that they were on a Goa'uld mothership.

As he looked out into his host's eyes, he saw both Freya and Aldwin sitting shackle-free before them. Martouf and Jolinar were also there, as well as surprisingly, Apollo. They were no longer dressed in the clothes they had worn for the Langara mission, but were clothed in various shades of light tan and brown colors, reminiscent of the desert clothing that the Tok'ra usually wore – except more geometric and elegant-looking.

Freya was still chiding them, while Aldwin had a mild but relieved and happy look upon his face. Martouf and Jolinar had neutral expressions, but he could see a glimmer of relief in their eyes. Of the Atanik, there was nothing except for his seemingly mild interest in examining the healing device. None of them looked to be injured, though it was clear that all of their belt pouches and weapons were not upon them.

So, they were on a mothership, but they were not prisoners. Yet whose mothership were they on? Certainly not Egeria, for she had no such ships of the kind. Even the cargo ship that they had used in their collection of materials had been 'borrowed' from Ba'al. It had been completely stripped, rebuilt, and checked for any tracking devices or bugs, before they had embarked upon their travels. None of the system lords seemed inclined to help them unless Egeria ordered it, and they certainly had not been in contact with her since leaving for Langara. She also didn't seem to command that much attention within the allied system lords to warrant any of them listening to her to look for them.

“We're on Leto's mothership,” Aldwin suddenly spoke up, startling Malek. However, he realized that his host had voiced the question he had echoed, though it didn't escape his notice that his host had triggered the vocal distortion to ensure that at least Martouf, Apollo, and Jolinar thought that it was he, Malek, speaking. “It's a rather short story as to how we got here, but suffice to say, we are slowly making our way back to Abydos.”

“There is something you should know though, Malek,” Martouf spoke up. “It is about Dakara, and what happened.”

He felt his host pause in his consumption of food, silently asking him if he wanted to take over. Alexei yielded control, though Malek indicated that he should continue to eat for the both of them – they both knew that he, Malek, had a very distinct lack of attention whenever it came to feeding himself or his host when presented with something of great interest. As soon as he eased into control over most functions, he leaned forward slightly, waiting for Martouf to begin.

~◊~

_Original reality, Atanik planet..._

 

“Open sesame!”

Daniel mentally sighed as he glanced over towards Gant, who merely shook her head in exasperation at the rather whimsical exclamation from one of the Atlantis expedition members whom Dr. Weir had graciously sent back to help them with the opening of the Atlantis-based Atanik device. The expedition member, Dr. Ailersen, was a natural-gene carrier, and was on the list of those who could potentially be tasked to operate the Atlantis or Antarctica chair. However, nothing was said of potential Furling help on the device.

Ailersen had also promptly asked for fresh-delivered pizza as soon as he had stepped through the gate though. It was a fair explanation for the expedition member's rather carefree personality – even in the face of such danger.

It had been a few days since the discovery of Malek's host identity, but neither he nor Gant had told anyone else about the discovery. He felt that it was not necessary to let anyone else know that Malek's host was most likely a candidate for the natural ATA-gene, and that it was the most plausible explanation as to how the Atlantis-based Atanik device was activated. It would have drawn too much attention from the real problem – that is how to get the three Tok'ra back safely, or at least send a message.

Gant, well, he didn't know her reasons, but her mannerisms when it came to Malek was interesting to say the least. She seemed oddly protective of him, even when he was absent. Daniel couldn't help but wonder if it had stemmed from her years serving as a member of the Tok'ra strike team. She certainly did not tell anyone else about Malek's host identity.

In the present though, Daniel shielded his eyes with his hand as the ground, walls, and ceiling rumbled around them. The glowing door slid open, sending dust and small, chipped rock debris all around them, until it stopped. “Holy...” he heard Ailersen whisper in awe.

Coughing slightly, he waved his hands around until the dust settled and looked into the chamber that had been revealed. The device was similar to a monolith except it was glowing blue. Not just any blue color, but a blue that matched that of the stargate. “Okay,” he couldn't help but say, “this is definitely not like the Quantum Mirror...”

“It's more stargate than Quantum Mirror,” Gant said before he heard her sharply state, “Don't touch it Ailersen.”

“You don't hear that hum?” the Atlantis expedition member asked, pausing from his attempt to poke his fingers or hand into the rippling blue wave that ran the entire length of the monolith.

“What hum?” she asked as the Tok'ra scientists started to pan their senors all over the thing, trying not to step too close to the device.

“It could be what you say is natural versus unnaturally implanted genes,” Xau spoke up. “Gant has unnaturally implanted genes, while Ailerson has naturally occurring genes. This 'hum' from the device may be a side effect.”

Gant shrugged, accepting the explanation, though she cautioned, “If you start hearing voices or anything other than a hum in your head Ailersen, let us know right away.” The expedition member nodded, acknowledging the order. “So,” Gant continued, “assuming that this acts similar to a stargate, do you think a boosted communication device signal could get through, Risune?”

“Possibly,” the Tok'ra answered, continuing to hook up several cables to the small communicator device. All of the expedition members to this planet had been provided with communicator devices, so it was safe to say that Freya and the others had one or more on them when they had been transported. “It may require more power than we currently have.”

“How much power?” Daniel asked, wondering if trans-dimensional communication was possible. Given how separate worlds were, even in parallel, Sam had explained to him and the others of SG-1 long ago that only physically transporting people from one place to another, or exotic particles leaking through could pass between the space-time continuum. Signals were not considered exotic particles. But this device looked more like a stargate than anything else – so perhaps radio waves could pass through.

“One of your naquadah reactors?” Risune answered, shrugging. “Malek told us that you utilized one on your Alpha Site a few years ago to generate a field to see into different spectrums. Perhaps it can be modified to output and enhance a signal to the communicator?”

“I'm no physicist, but wouldn't the power output, or at least the feedback also bounce back towards us?” Gant asked. “I mean, we know an activated gate on either side can transmit radio back and forth. If we bounce into something on the other side using the naquadah reactor, and it comes back to us, we'd essentially be blasting our location to the Ori.”

Risune shook his head, indicating that he didn't know the answer. “I'll ask Sam about it,” Daniel volunteered. “Meanwhile, let's just try to send the signal as best as possible without the naquadah reactor. Hopefully, they'll be able to hear us.”

~◊~

_Alternate reality..._

 

There was purpose in his walk that did not reflect the multitude of thoughts running through his and his host's minds. Though he was making his way towards the area where he thought their salvaged supplies, along with their weapons were kept, he took care not to let the turmoil he felt show upon his face. He did not need to give Leto's Jaffa any reason to report to Leto about him or his friends.

It was hard for Malek to believe that someone had given the location of Dakara to Anubis; even harder when talking to Freya and Aldwin in private that Aldwin had told them that Leto had suspected Egeria to have done so. That had been difficult for him to swallow as Aldwin detailed the rather heated conversation he had had with Leto to them. In a way, Leto's side of the story did make sense, but he had not wanted to believe it – not wanted to believe that this Egeria and Leto truly had broken their alliance. If Leto had warned the system lords of Egeria's turn to Anubis, then what was Egeria's purpose within the alliance other than to deceive Anubis? It didn't make any sense for that to happen, or else the system lords would not have attacked Dakara.

He entered the chamber where not only extra staff weapons, but many other types of weapons including grenades were stored. There were no Jaffa around, and he was very surprised at the fact that he had not been stopped on his approach or within the entrance towards the main storage area. He had guessed correct, for in the center was the pile that their zat'nik'tels, along with the salvaged crates of supplies, and belt pouches that contained various things – one of them being the containment crystal that held the naquadria.

“You can thank me for ensuring that the guards did not stop you, Malek.”

He spun, immediately taking his hand away from retrieving the lead-lined pouch that contained the crystal, only to see Qetesh standing by the entrance to the storage room with her arms crossed over her chest. There was an imperious look about her, though her eyes held a keen, almost hungry look that he did not like.

“Qetesh,” he simply stated, taking one step away from the pouch as he reached back towards the table. His hand hovered slightly over the nearest zat'nik'tel, wondering what the system lord wanted.

“So quick to use violence,” Qetesh said, stepping in and approaching as a hunter would a prey. “You are as impulsive and hot-blooded as Malek of this reality. Are you sure you are not him?”

As much as he wanted to snatch up the zat'nik'tel that brushed against his fingers, he dared not to. It was not out of concern for Qetesh or the abomination Harcesis that she carried that he stayed his hand, but rather because of the extension of protection that Leto had imposed on both him and his friends, and Qetesh. Aldwin had stated to him and Freya that Leto insisted that she would not hurt them while in the dimension, but given how convoluted everything was, he wasn't sure whether or not to believe that promise.

“Do not approach the table, Qetesh,” he warned, having heard that Qetesh had been cautioned against touching or even extracting the containment crystal from the lead-lined pouch. “It is--”

“I have been sufficiently warned,” she stated, continuing to approach. “And yet, after all that your friends have done to save your life, you yourself have gone back to it. Therefore, it is quite harmless to myself or to the child I carry.”

_**If only it were true,**_ he heard his host grumble before a mental image of the contents of containment crystal 'accidentally' touching Qetesh popped up in their shared space.

_**I would rather not go through radiation sickness and recovery again, Alexei,**_ he said.

The image disappeared as an apprehensive feeling filled its place – Qetesh had stopped uncomfortably close to them – well within their personal space; their noses were nearly touching. Well, uncomfortable for his host, but not for him. It was also something that was familiar to him, for he could clearly smell the pheromones that the system lord was projecting from her host. It was a potent cocktail designed to seduce, and make both him and his host lust uncontrollably after her.

It was such a shame that he had far too much experience from past hosts to know what she was attempting to do, for he had done the same thing to various mission 'marks' that he tagged for intelligence on the Goa'uld. Fortunately, he also knew the antidote to keep his host's own hormones in check. With a lightning quick apology, he clamped down on all areas of his host's functions and flooded his host's blood with naquadah. Standing as still as a statue as she suggestively placed her hand on his chest and traced it down past his waist, he could see disappointment begin to cloud her eyes. She had not triggered one hormonal reaction from him.

“I would ask that you not molest my guest, Queen Consort.”

Malek breathed a mental sigh of relief as Qetesh immediately stepped away, though she did attempt to teasingly brush her fingers upon his chest one last time. He looked over towards the entrance to see a stony look upon Leto's face. “There is no danger here, Leto,” Qetesh said, “and I am as curious as you are--”

“This inquiry is mine to deal with, Queen Consort. You are a guest here until Lord Ra summons you back. Leave. Now,” Leto ordered.

Qetesh silently obeyed, though there was an unkind smile upon her face as she paused at the entrance and said, “He is not your Malek, Leto. You would also best remember that.”

There was no reaction from Leto as he saw her hold a rather stoic, still stony look. As soon as the Queen Consort was gone though, Malek did not relax his hold upon his host – the potent pheromone was still lingering in the air around him and was clinging onto his clothes. He needed to completely clean himself and request a new set of clothes to ensure that nothing from Qetesh's attempt to seduce him and his host remained.

“What are you doing here, Malek?” Leto asked in a rather blunt tone.

“Securing the item inside of the pouch,” he said, moving away from the zat'nik'tel and back to the pouch. He unbuckled it from the belt and held it up.

“It feels like raw naquadah,” she said, taking a few steps in, but did not approach him as Qetesh had. She stood a respectful distance from him, hands clasped in front of her. “However, your companions said that you suffered radiation poisoning. Naquadah is not usually grown or mined in such conditions.”

“No, it is not,” he agreed. “However, in these particular conditions, it is, and the element it is mixed in is a key component to the explosive.”

She was silent for a very long moment, long enough that Malek thought he was free to go until she said, “Then perhaps you may utilize the isolation chambers within this ship to continue creating your explosive. I myself have used these chambers many times in the past to ensure that the danger from the various items created does not spread and kill my Jaffa. After all, with the attack in the Dakara system, your explosive will be in demand now more than ever.”

“And yet you claim to be Tok'ra,” he accused, taking a couple of steps forward to close the distance. While he believed Aldwin's words about Leto, it was the system lord herself that he wanted to hear directly from. It made little sense as to why she would bring them back to Abydos, knowing what she knew, and even risking the ire of Ra should Qetesh and the Harcesis died.

“One must sometimes become what we are fighting in order to ensure freedom for others. Even for the ghosts of those they had loved,” she stated. “I had to ally, to pretend in order to survive. Asteria and Aldwin were my eyes and ears within Egeria's court, as were occasionally Malek and Taelon. I was convinced that if given the right opportunity, I would be able to end the system lords with one swift blow. I had my chance taken from me.”

“The summit,” he said after it hit him and his host like lightning. “You were prepared to unleash something that would kill...”

_**Symbiote poison?**_ he heard his host ask.

_**It is Ailin. She is the one who headed up the project on Revanna. I would not be surprised if the formula came from a combination of Ailin and Ren'au's knowledge,**_ he answered.

“From your words, it seems that your Tok'ra have also indeed succeeded in creating a method to wipe out the system lords in one, simultaneous blow,” Leto stated. “I had expected Anubis to be there. I had convinced all of the system lords that this was the only way that we could draw him out through Egeria – to physically kill or trap him there while I secretly unleashed my weapon.”

“But Egeria was telling the truth this time,” he finished for her. “She was not lying when she said she had travelers from another dimension.”

“Yes, and I stayed my hand. As did the other system lords,” she said, nodding.

“They why foolishly attack Dakara, if you had already told Ra and the others of your suspicions?” he asked.

“We thought that perhaps your presences would have had an effect on the spell that was over her, that perhaps she would begin to fight the tainted host's control over her.”

“But what if you are not correct in this instance, Leto?” he pressed. “What if she has been fighting and she is not the one who informed Anubis about Dakara?”

“The you would accuse yourself and your companions of being the ones who transmitted the data to Anubis,” she answered. However, before he could protest, she unclapsed her hands and held one of them up to stop him from talking. “But you are not. I know this because of my Jaffa who have been seeded on various planets within Anubis's domain, including those that you visited during your collection of materials. You and your companions did not sense or hear them following you because they are not Jaffa with symbiotes. They are Jaffa on tretonin.”

He saw her reach into her sleeve and withdraw a single vial of the purple liquid and extend it out towards him. “I know not what you are making tretonin for, Malek, but I sense that you are in need of it sooner than later, and that you may not have time to prepare a pure sample. I know that you have no reason to trust me, especially since Egeria has treated you and the others with kindness and great hospitality, but it is as I told Aldwin: no harm will come to you and your companions while you are here in this dimension.”

He hesitated in reaching out and accepting the gift, but at his host's urging, he took it and slipped it into a pocket. “Thank you,” he said. In a quieter tone, he said, “For what it is worth, please accept my sincerest apologies on your loss.”

In response, she merely stepped to the side to allow him through, not even deigning to stop him from taking the naquadria with him. As he walked past her, she softly said, “Malek. Please be careful in what ever you are doing and building. You are loved by your friends more than you can possibly imagine – far more than what existed here for myself and the others. Please do not lose sight of that.”

“Leto,” he began, hesitating. “My Leto--”

“Died. Yes, I heard from Aldwin that she gave her life so that the Tok'ra could have a future,” she answered.

“You do not understand,” he said, glancing over at her. “I killed her with my own hands. I forcibly extracted her from Aldwin, thinking that she was a Goa'uld system lord who had committed many unforgivable crimes, including killing many of our Tok'ra brethren. I killed her when I should have put aside my need for revenge and forgive as Egeria taught me to.”

“She is not wholly gone, Malek. That is evident in the compartment crystal you carry. Do not linger on what was. Embrace what you have.” She paused for a moment before saying, “I shall ensure that my Jaffa provide you with another set of clothes.”

He remained silent, but nodded his thanks towards her. As he walked out of there, he realized that despite his doubts about her, and the doubts she had cast upon Egeria, he did not know why he found her story more compelling than Egeria's. Trust had to start somewhere, and she had indeed kept her word about not harming them, having not known that they were still on the planet when she had jumped in, fighting with Osiris. Egeria had brutally interrogated them without even simply questioning them – though she had apologized afterwards.

He could trust Leto to at least create this particular object. She knew that they were Tok'ra, their true allegiance, and yet she had every opportunity to betray them. The same could be said for Egeria, but she had discovered that through their memories. Leto merely observed, deduced it, and kept silent until now. He could trust her... for now.

“Leto,” he said, pausing and turning back slightly. “I appreciate your offer to use the isolation chambers on board your ship and will accept that offer. May I also ask for your help in creating a particular focusing crystal for the explosive?”

“Yes,” she answered. “Though may I ask why--?”

“Not Aldwin and through the memories he has?” he finished for her. “Because I have already put too much burden upon him. I also do not wish to hurt him further by asking him to search deeper into his former symbiote's memories.”

“Your compassion for his well being is reflective of his want to protect you,” she said. “However, I understand and share your concerns with regards to his usage of the memory recall device. What type of focusing crystal do you need created?”

“One that is an exact replica of any of the six Eyes of Ra.”

 

~*~*~*~

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 31 Dec 2016/01 Jan 2017 - I sincerely apologize for any grammatical and/or spelling mistakes in this chapter. It was written and edited while I was (still am) ill, and on heavy dosages of medication.
> 
> Happy New Year!

**Chapter 9**

 

“This device was never meant to be a doorway used by any of my people to escape from one reality to another. We were only supposed to have sent people back and forth to communicate with our kind and help find ways to keep our races alive.”

Aldwin glanced up from his polishing of a gradient hollow crystal cylinder that was designed to house a particular tunneling crystal from what they had left in the satchel. Martouf and Jolinar had also looked over from where they had been carefully monitoring Malek. Malek was within an iso-chamber, doing something he, Aldwin, knew not with the manipulation of the naquadah and naquadria. His friend was the only one who had not heard the statement, due to it not being transmitted into the iso-chamber.

Freya and Apollo were busy a little ways down from the area he was working in, but he was not sure if he heard correctly of what the Atanik had just stated. Though his symbiote was still of the mind to stay and help, what they had heard from Malek with regards to an expansion on Leto's theory about Egeria and the Dakara ambush, was very unsettling. Asteria still thought Leto was lying about Egeria being the traitor in their midst, but he could sense a tiny seed of doubt within his symbiote's convictions. However, he did not encourage or nurture it at all – he respected his symbiote's will, and allowed her to draw her own conclusions rather than force his own upon her.

But with regards to the avenue of a new host for Asteria, convincing the Atanik to become one had hit a wall. After the rather vague and mysterious comment that Apollo had made on the cargo ship, he had not had another chance to even talk with the Atanik, much less get to know him a little better. The further the Atanik withdrew from his steadily decreasing consumption of the addictive nish'ta, the more reticent he was. Even Freya had quietly told him and Malek that it was hard for her to draw out any sort of explanation with regards to the device and the purpose of it, whenever Apollo was not in a nish'ta-induced state. Aldwin had wondered to himself if it had been the right idea to actually free the Atanik from nish'ta.

This statement that had just been said was curious though, for the Atanik was in a sober state at the moment. However, none of them were able to question Apollo for a better explanation when the door to the research area slid open. Leto walked in, carrying a small tray that looked like it was lined and draped in velvet. There were two small, blood-red, polished discs within the tray, and belatedly, Aldwin realized that the discs were the diameter of the hollow ends of his cylindrical crystal.

“Is it not dangerous for all of you to be here?” Leto asked as she placed the tray down at the end of the table, glancing at them before focusing her attention on Malek, still in the iso-chamber and not even paying attention to what was going on outside of the chamber.

“I trust that Malek knows what he is doing,” Freya spoke up, inclining her head slightly. “After all, he has created many of these types of devices with great success without such a protective chamber as you have provided.”

Aldwin saw Leto flick her eyes over towards him and nodded in agreement, though he refrained from stating that he only knew of two times that Malek had created naquadah-enhanced explosives. The first had been to destroy Netu, and the second had been a tiny, prototype-like device that almost seemed ornamental and decorative – if one did not know what they were holding. However, Freya was correct – Malek had created both devices with far less protection than what he was working with at the moment.

“Those discs,” he began, peering over at them. “They look familiar...”

“They were the focusing crystals that were part of a gift of six discs that I gave to Ra,” she answered. “I believe that you--”

Their attention were once again drawn away by the hiss of the iso-chamber pressurizing and opening its doors. Malek stepped out of the chamber, holding a small, glass sphere that held sloshing contents within that glowed a familiar bright purple-blue color. However, the sphere was not whole and had a deliberately carved hole through the center. It looked more like someone had cored what the Tau'ri had described a tart fruit as an 'orange' than anything else. The sphere was also the width of the outer portion of the cylindrical rod he, Aldwin, had carved. The diameter of the sphere look to match the length of the cylinder. They could all see suspended flecks of a darker solid within the glowing hollowed sphere, though it was gathered more towards the bottom than the perimeter of the sphere.

“Liquid naquadah,” Jolinar stated, nodding in appreciation. “You are one to keep your word about the volatility of this explosive. I have known a few minor system lords who have tried what you have done, but end up blowing themselves up.”

“What is that at the bottom, Malek?” Martouf asked, though it did not escape Aldwin's awareness that it seemed Leto too, had wanted to ask that question.

“Naquadria,” Malek answered, gently placing the cored sphere down on the table upon a stand. “Highly unstable, radioactive, and can only be found in that planet's region where we mined for the naquadah as well.”

“And how many of these types of naquadah-naquadria explosives have you built in your dimension? How many system lords were killed by these?” Jolinar asked, utterly fascinated as she leaned in to get a better look. Even the reticent Apollo had a curious look upon his face.

It was quite deliberate in how Malek completely ignored answering Jolinar's questions as Aldwin saw him extend a silent hand out towards him. Obliging, he handed over the hollow cylindrical crystal and watched as his friend took it and carefully slid it into the center of the sphere. Immediately, they could all see the flecks of naquadria rise from the bottom of the sphere of its own accord, seemingly attracted by the magnetic properties that the hollow cylinder interacting with the liquid naquadah encased in glass, induced.

“Fascinating,” he heard Leto whisper. “We have never gotten this far in our research into naquadah-enhanced explosives. What crystal structure did you use to create the cylinder, Aldwin?”

“Trade secret,” Malek cut in before Aldwin could answer, extending a hand out towards him again. “This configuration is not ideal for this type of explosive, but there are other materials that this galaxy does not posses that I used to use. Collapser, if you would please, Aldwin.”

He obliged, and retrieved one of the two remaining crystals they had. It was indeed a trade secret, and even if Malek had not said those words, he would have not told Leto. From what he knew of this dimension's Leto, it seemed that she had not developed or seen the need to develop tunneling crystals. The cylindrical one had been carefully carved from its previous configuration and purpose to fit the specifications that Malek had requested. The collapsing crystal and a single cuboid one were the only other ones they had left after their harrowing escape from the naquadria planet.

Initially, he knew not what Malek was going to do with the modified cylindrical crystal, but combined with the collapser, Leto's crystals, and the way the vessel containing the naquadah and naquadria was shaped, he had a very good idea of what exactly was being built. It was a highly volatile variant of the one used on Netu, except with a timer that had to be manually induced. Throwing it into a planetoid like Netu would most likely have the same effect, but whomever decided to use the explosive in a different manner would have to manually trigger it.

Hooking it up to the engine or power systems of a mothership for a remote triggering would do nothing, except probably break the glass and spill the liquid naquadah and radioactive flecks of naquadria all over the place. It was the triggering of the expansion of the cylindrical crystal with the crushing of the collapsing crystal that would create a cocoon around the entire device. That was what the focusing crystal discs were used for – they were built and carved to withstand a lot of energy – to focus the energy being poured through it. The cocoon would keep everything inside until the heat of the collapsing crystal became great enough to trigger the explosive quality of the naquadria and naquadah.

He saw Malek carefully slide the collapsing crystal into the center of the cylinder, and instantly, the naquadria gravitated towards the area with the slight change in the magnetic field. He saw him then pluck the two small discs from Leto's tray and carefully place them on either end of the hollowed cylinder to seal it up.

“How many minutes if it is triggered at this stage?” he asked.

“Thirty seconds, give or take five seconds, I think,” Malek answered. “It cannot be stopped once triggered.”

“That is not a lot of time,” Martouf said.

“Yes,” Malek said, glancing up as he unbuckled the lead-lined pouch from his belt and placed it on the table. “I know. The rest of the materials to encase and lengthen the time until detonation are back on Abydos.”

“What is the yield?” Jolinar asked.

“Drop it on some planet like Netu and it will be obliterated,” Malek answered. “Trigger it and just beam it up to a regular ship and it might destroy it and a few others. For a mothership, triggering it within the engine room is sure to destroy it and most of the fleet.”

Just as the device was lifted and placed into the empty pouch with several cushioning materials also being arranged around the device, they all heard an odd crackle split across the air. As quick as it had shattered the relative silence it was gone. However, Leto did not even take a single step towards the nearest console before the crackle came again, and this time, was immediately resolved into a tinny voice saying, “... do you copy? This is Dr. Daniel Jackson. Anise, Malek, or Aldwin of the Tok--”

Freya was the closest to the communicator that was receiving the unencrypted broadcast and snatched the device up. She pressed a series of clicks to untether the communicator from its current encryption before depressing the button to speak. “This is Freya, Dr. Jackson,” she said, the tone of her voice full of relief. “We receive you. Where are you?”

Aldwin glanced over to see Leto immediately heading over to the nearest console and press the bridge communication button to order her Jaffa to pinpoint the location of where the broadcast originated from and to bring the fleet to the system. There was a crackle over the communication device before a female voice in a no-nonsense tone stated, “Protocol check. Challenge: felandris.”

He caught Freya's puzzled look over towards him before seeing Malek reached out towards Freya saying, “It is Gant. It is a challenge protocol we established several years ago.” Freya silently nodded and handed over the communicator, just as they felt a slight jerking movement, indicating that the ship and fleet had dropped out of hyperspace. In a crisp, commanding tone, Malek then continued to say, “Protocol check. Answer: vesant. Secure to channel _peletor_ and cease wide broadcast. Possible hostiles pursuing and locating.”

Silence answered the other end while Leto returned to the console to pull up a system map of the area they had dropped out of. To Aldwin's surprise that quickly turned into unease, they were back at the Atanik colony planet. He heard a series of clicks over the communicator, indicating that both sides were securing the line from a wide broadcast to a narrow band of encrypted communication.

“The monolith is still active,” Jackson's voice came back over the communicator, this time a little more distant and tinny. “We're still on the planet on, I guess...the original side where you three found this thing...”

“Do not step through or touch it, Dr. Jackson,” Malek immediately warned. “There is no definitive way back for us yet. The ruins we arrived in collapsed and there has been no sign of a similar device in this dimension.”

“Yeah... see... the device... it's Ancient,” Jackson said. “It's from Atlantis on our side and transported by the Ataniks, who are the descendants of Ancient-Furling relations.”

Aldwin was glad he was not the only one with a very surprised and alarmed look upon his face. He had not been caught up on all the Tau'ri's activities in their war against the Ori, but he knew at least of their establishment of a base in another galaxy. No Goa'uld mothership had the capability to reach the Pegasus Galaxy in the amount of time that it took the Tau'ri ships to – at least not in their original dimension. His gaze was not the only one upon Apollo, who had silently risen from where he sat on the other end of the table with a very calculating look in his eyes. Freya's mouth hung slightly open as she stared at the Atanik in shock, and even Malek had dropped his hand holding the communicator to the side.

The three of them knew of the Great Alliance, if not through their symbiotes, but also through the stories told by others of the Tok'ra. Supposedly, SG-1 had contacted the Nox but did not find them willing to intercede in the Goa'uld fight. The Ancients had all been non-existent in stopping Anubis or the other system lords. The Asgard had been the only ones actively offering protection against the system lords – but only to certain planets, and did not care to ally themselves with the Tok'ra. The Tok'ra didn't really care for the Asgards either. But the Furlings... no one knew what happened to them or remembered what they looked like. Only the legends of how powerful they had been, dominating the galaxy as the supreme rulers, remained. They had just disappeared one day, and from the metaphorical ashes rose the Goa'uld system lords and their evil aspirations to become just like the Furlings.

“Furlings?” he heard Leto whisper as Apollo's skin suddenly rippled slightly before he quickly transformed back into his cat-like state. “As in one of the four races of the Great Alliance?”

“Who is that?” the tinny voice of Jackson sounded over the communicator as Aldwin realized that Malek had forgotten to stop partially depressing the button on the device to speak.

Before Malek could answer, Aldwin saw the Atanik gesture with a clawed hand towards the communicator. He saw his friend hesitate for a moment before gingerly approach and handed the device to the Atanik. Akesios pressed the button and spoke in the communicator, “This is Arileon Akesios, formerly of the Agentus' Lantean Guardsmen. If you have knowledge of Atlantis, then you are either Lantean or Tau'ri. Which are you?”

“A-Akesios... Apollo?” Jackson answered, surprised. “Okay... um yeah. We're Tau'ri—we come from Earth--”

“Jackson! We got incoming!” Gant's faint shout carried over the device before the thump-thumps sounded over it as well. “Ori fleet inbound. We got to--”

Abruptly, the crackling and communication ceased as Aldwin saw Malek rather bravely and deftly snatch the device back from the Atanik's claws. Clicking it multiple times, all they heard was nothing else. He heard Malek mutter something – possibly a curse, but could not quite catch it as the useless communicator sat in the palm of his hand.

“That is what we face, Akesios,” Freya spoke up, her tone serious and without any hint of the playfulness or curiosity Aldwin was used to hearing. “If you are Furling, Atanik, or even a descendant of your forebearers, surely you must have heard about the Ori.”

“The castaways. Those who walked the path that their brethren told them not to,” Akesios answered, eyes glittering. “Yes, I have heard of the Ori and they are not apparently a myth as my people were led to believe by both of our forebearers. At least where you are from.”

“I sense that you are hesitant to help them, Atanik,” Jolinar spoke up, crossing her arms over her chest. “Did not your lord promise to--”

“Ra does not rule over me, and neither does this so-called 'alliance' you all have wrought!” Akesios hissed, springing back to a defensive position. His claws were out and ready to attack, but to Aldwin's surprise, Leto had not called her Jaffa in, and it was all due to Malek holding a hand up in a silent gesture for her to not to.

“So this is your true allegiance and color without nish'ta,” Malek stated. “You hate Goa'uld.”

“And yet you have an alliance with the Tau'ri--”

Whatever else the Atanik was going to say was cut off as a massive blow rocked the ship, sending all of them sprawling to the floor. Aldwin managed to roll up and lunge towards the falling compartment that held the naquadria explosive. He caught it just in the nick of time before it could smash into the floor. Several more thumps crashed into the ship, rocking it back and forth, as alarms started wailing, and things around them started to spark and hiss. Cradling the compartment before securing it to his own belt, Aldwin saw Leto claw her way to the console, pressing a button and demanding, “Status!”

“Anubis's fleet jumped in, milady! Many of our ships and ours included were hit in the first volley. Shields are down to fifty-percent and still falling. Our hyperdrive is not responding. Sublights are pushed to maximum, but we seem to not be moving!”

“Interdiction field,” he heard her mutter as he picked himself up off the floor, seeing a very relieved look upon Martouf's face, who had been the second closest person to have possibly caught the device.

“Fight with us or flee in the nearest escape pod, Atanik,” Leto said, immediately heading out of the chamber. “But decide quickly!”

Both Malek and Jolinar were already following Leto out, and Aldwin spared a glance over at the Atanik before joining the others. As they all hurried down the halls, past Jaffa troops scrambling all over the place to put out fires, prepare choke points, and defenses for possible boarding, he risked a quick glance back. To his slight surprise, the surly Atanik was following them. It was a truce, albeit a temporary one, but it seemed that Akesios's hatred of Anubis was greater.

“My Jaffa would have already started to power the weapon,” Leto said as they hurried through the corridors. “But Anubis is most definitely here for the Harcesis and to destroy us after obtaining it.”

“Then why not kill Qetesh and the child?” Jolinar demanded. “Why keep them alive? Surely Ra can take another woman and create another abomination.”

“Because the Harcesis has knowledge that we can possibly use,” Aldwin spoke up before Leto could answer. “Ancient knowledge that even a memory device attached to Ra's head cannot access. That knowledge can be used to possibly defeat Anubis. We had a Harcesis in our dimension, except that we were unsuccessful in extracting any knowledge that would have ended our war earlier. The child ascended.” There was no need to mention that it had mainly been due to SG-1 who had prevented him from gathering any relevant information with regards to the lineage of Apophis and Ammonet.

“Ascended?” Lantash, who had taken over as soon as they had left the chamber, questioned.

“Jaffa!” Leto said, cutting off anything else they were going to say as they stopped before a complement of Jaffa troops. “Take them to the nearest armory. I will join them shortly.”

“Milady,” the Jaffa answered and not a moment later, Leto peeled away, most likely making her way to the bridge to assess the situation.

The ship continued to rock under the volleys that Anubis's fleet was pounding upon them, causing them to stumble as they followed the Jaffa troops to the armory. Once there, Aldwin immediately picked up two zat'nik'tels as he felt a thrill of nerves and worry wash over him. Never had he openly fought against Jaffa, except for the first time so long ago to escape the system lord that had held him and his cousin captive. Even then, he had fired off shots without even aiming. Every fight that had participated in, had been fought to escape, to stay to the shadows, to survive, to scatter shots, not to openly face down Jaffa troops like this.

_**Be calm, Aldwin,**_ the soothing voice of his symbiote said, startling him slightly. _**Allow my memories of fighting the Goa'uld to guide you. I promise, we will survive this.**_

He could feel his worry ease slightly, though surprise replaced most of it. Never in their time together, had she ever tried to comfort him in this manner. He could feel her cool confidence in the face of what they were about to do, the centuries of her own memories within a previous host fighting beside Egeria, on planets, on ships – all in the same manner that they were about to face. He touched that ocean of confidence and immediately felt it over take him, as if it were a layer of armor resting just above his skin.

“Anise?” Malek's concerned tone snapped him out of his reverie as he glanced over to see Anise draping two bandoleers of grenades over her shoulders. She also had a zat'nik'tel holstered on her belt, opposite of where her datapad was clipped. Malek had two zat'nik'tels on either side of his belt, and had a staff weapon in one of his hand.

“Freya is asleep, though I have temporarily blinded her and dampened her hearing,” Anise answered. “She will not remember this.”

“It has been a while since we have seen you on the battlefield, Anise,” Jolinar spoke up, approaching with the same type of armament load out as Malek. “I know that you are not the Anise that we knew, but I humbly ask for forgiveness for my treatment of you while we were still on Abydos, Lady Death.”

Aldwin did not miss the rather amused and curious look Malek had thrown his way at the rather descriptive nickname that this dimension's Anise apparently had. It had been many decades since Anise had stopped participating in field missions and devoted herself to her archaeological studies. However, both he and Malek remembered that Anise was most certainly _not_ the best field operative they had, especially during a firefight. The Anise of this dimension was certainly different enough to have a deadly reputation to have earned that moniker.

“I...forgive you,” Anise answered after a moment to consider the words, though they were said a bit hesitatingly and in a slightly confused tone.

“Aldwin,” Leto spoke up from the entrance, as the Jaffa still within the armory stiffened for a moment and bowed to acknowledge her presence.

Aldwin blinked in confusion as Leto approached holding two kara-kesh. The rebel system lord herself was armed with two kara-kesh as well, with two zat'nik'tel-like objects on either side of her waist. He placed his zat'nik'tels down and took one of the kara-kesh into his hands. Turning it over, it was not the usual red crystal that was in the center, but a sickening green colored one. His symbiote immediately flooded his memories with knowledge of the strange kara-kesh. It was as familiar to her as what Leto was holding – before the birth of the Tok'ra movement. He mentally stepped back, feeling that it was better for her to just take over than continually guide him through memories.

“These were what my counterpart in this dimension used, Leto?” he heard his symbiote crisply ask.

“Yes,” Leto answered.

“Excellent,” he heard Asteria answered, plucking the other kara-kesh from her hands and then slipping both onto his hands. “And thank you, sister. I lost my pair over two-thousand years ago at the Battle of Vorash.”

There were two zat'nik'tel-like devices that were underneath the gloves, still resting in Leto's hands. Asteria took them and clipped them on either side of their belt before running the crystals above a certain point on the device. A similar sound to the _bzzt_ of a zat'nik'tel filled the air, but what she brought up encased around her hands was not balls of energy. It was two jagged spikes of glowing green energy, similar in shape to swords.

“We are expecting Kull soldiers, are we not, Leto?” he heard his symbiote ask.

“Yes.”

“Just like the Battles of Malkshur and Ichterus again,” he heard her mutter and put forth a query. When he and Leto had been in the service of Ba'al and heard that Anubis had started using Kull soldiers, she had not told him that she had encountered those types of soldiers before. She had been quiet when it had been announced, but back then, he had chalked it up to the fact that she was thinking again on how to subvert the nearly invincible soldiers.

_**It is a time in which I would not like to revisit at the moment, Aldwin** ,_ his symbiote said, lowering their hands back across the zat'nik'tel-like device to 'sheathe' the energy swords.

“It seems that there are at least some more commonalities between our dimensions than we thought,” Asteria said, taking one of the two zat'nik'tels that had originally been in their hands and holstering it right next to the pouch that contained the explosive.

No other words were exchanged as he felt his symbiote exert a little more control than usual over their body and follow Leto out of the armory. He allowed it, for it was necessary – he wanted to survive as much as his symbiote wanted to. Even with their differences, they were still blended and bonded until the bitter end.

~◊~

_Original reality..._

 

“Are you sure, Daniel?”

“Yeah,” he said with as much confidence as he could muster.

He, along with Xau, Risune, Gant, and Sam were sitting around one of the many briefing rooms on board the _General Hammond_. It had been a harrowing and narrow escape from the Ori forces who had most likely heard the wide-field, unencrypted broadcast when they had first set it up and turned it on. However, it was a risk that both the Tok'ra Council and the SGC had signed off on, given the ramifications that the device could possibly have on their war against the Ori in this galaxy.

Fortunately, all of Anise's expedition team had been evacuated prior to their turning on the broadcast, and explosives had been carefully laid around the ziggurat. A beacon had also been carefully attached to the device. When the first reports of the Ori had come in, that was when they had immediately disconnected the broadcast, even though it had been changed to a narrow band, encrypted one. They could not risk any messages being intercepted, even under encryption, or the Ori putting a jamming field up to prevent them from beaming to the _Hammond_.

Sam had immediately performed a micro-jump from the other side of the system to the planet. Just before they and the monolith were beamed out of harm's way, Gant had set off the charges to begin collapsing the ziggurat. Now, on their way back to the SGC, they needed to sort out a few new revelations learned in their brief contact with the missing Tok'ra.

“Unfortunately, Dr. Weir says that there has still been no contact from the Furlings,” Sam said after a moment. “We can try to tell them that we encountered, especially with another version of this Akesios fellow, but you've read the reports from Atlantis when it comes to that Furling.”

“Well, the code-in word that Malek spoke was for not being under duress,” Gant spoke up. “But I did hear some hostility within the tone Akesios used when questioning us. Malek could have lied or been made to lie.”

“But Akesios did say Tau'ri, and not Earth,” Daniel spoke up. “Which means, we or at least humans on Earth have not evolved to the point we are in now. And if Akesios of this other reality is or was a part of Atlantis's detachment of the Agentus, there's probably a lot more differences than our usual parallel universe.”

“Agentus?” Risune questioned.

“We think its a sort of special forces within the Furling military or something,” Sam answered, shrugging. “Honestly, from what Dr. Weir described it to be, it sounds more like Internal Affairs or some monitoring body that makes sure no one steps out of line in their society. Not sure though...”

Daniel saw her tap the table for a moment before saying, “So the device could be more than just a parallel universe door way, since all of the devices we found before that are similar to this transported us to universes very similar to ours except for one or two major details. What did the wall of Ancient text say again?”

“Transferred from Atlantis. Do not use unless you are prepared for the effects that arise from seeking what you need most, Colonel Carter,” Risune answered.

He saw a frown work its way through Sam's expression before a smirk replaced it. “I think we've been looking at this wrong. We think its a doorway to a parallel dimension, which yes it is. But what if it is also a 'stargate' to a parallel dimension?”

Daniel blinked in puzzlement before it hit him like lightning. It was a doorway, but the coloring, glow, and how it operated was exactly like a stargate. “Except that it is only connected to one particular dimension, much like we can only dial one sequence at a time to connect to another stargate! There has got to be multiple ones of these scattered about...”

“Ah shit,” Gant swore. “And we just only blew up one ziggurat--”

“According to Anise's research notes, there are many abandoned Atanik colonies scattered around the galaxy,” Xau quietly spoke up.

“Okay,” Daniel said, nodding. “We'll have to cross-reference notes and see if we can get expedition teams out to the colonies without drawing too much attention from the Ori, or Lucian Alliance for that matter. But since Akesios mentioned both Earth and Atlantis, there might be a way for Malek and the others to get home. I think there might be a similar device on Earth.”

“Not on Atlantis?”

“No,” Gant spoke up, shaking her head slightly. “I agree with Daniel. Akesios's vocal inflection towards Atlantis was more protective than of Earth. There's probably something on his dimension's Atlantis that he knows about that we don't know about on ours. Considering the Akesios that we know can transform into a human and has the ATA-gene, he's probably pointing them towards Earth. It's closer. They landed in the same place where they departed from, so it's safe to say that if there is a similar device on either Atlantis or Earth, they'll probably land on either place.”

“Think we're going to need to send a drone through the device once we get back to Earth. See if we can figure out if your theory of the device anchoring where ever it is in the galaxy holds true. And where the possible device to bring them home might be.”

“I just hope it's not like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Daniel quipped. “Because if there's more of these devices on our side, there's definitely going to be more on their side as well.”

~◊~

_Alternate reality..._

 

“Our shields have failed!” the Jaffa's tinny voice shouted from the console that had been patched to the bridge. “Weapon charge is at 90 percent!”

Where they had been staged was an intersection of multiple corridors, one of which led to the heart of the ship and to the weapon that Leto had built. Others led to the engine room, life support systems, communications, and several other key systems. While there were branching sub-corridors that would lead to those systems as well, Anise knew from listening and reading mission reports and Council minutes that this particular intersection was key to taking down any Goa'uld ship. It was also the place where multiple transport rings were also stationed.

While she thought it was foolhardy to continue to keep Qetesh and the abomination that she carried within her still alive, Leto did have a point – even if the Harcesis was not here, Anubis was still keen on destroying and killing all and any resistance to his rule. They would have fought for their lives anyways. As for where the Queen Consort was, she didn't ask, and neither did the others – all she could infer was that Leto was keeping her somewhere safe and under guard.

So when the first of many ring transports activated and glowed with incoming Jaffa, Anise was already ripping and tossing several grenades off of the bandoleers that she wore. They exploded in spectacular fashion as soon as the enemy Jaffa materialized, sending several flying back just as bolts of gold and blue filled the air.

The sharp smell of charred bodies and of the energy from the weapons fire being exchanged filled the air as Anise quickly ducked behind the pillar she had positioned herself from. Two close thumps smacked into the pillar, sending flecks of super-heated shrapnel flying all over the place, with a couple slicing shallowly into her skin. She ripped another grenade from one of the bandoleers and primed it. As soon as there was a pause in the firing that had tracked her to where she hid, she quickly stepped out, threw the grenade towards a cluster of enemy Jaffa. She dove and rolled towards another pillar, coming up just as she unholstered her zat'nik'tel.

She caught a glimpse of the cluster of Jaffa as they immediately scattered just as the grenade exploded, allowing Malek who was slightly behind the pillar to her right, along with Lantash who also behind the same pillar, to fire at the scattered Jaffa. She too, fired a few quick shots. To her left, a few of Leto's Jaffa had take up position where she had been, and further into the fray near the corridors that would lead to engine and life support, were the sickly green energy swords of Asteria, along with Akesios. Both had opted to fight and rip through the enemy Jaffa via hand-to-hand. Unfortunately, it was so smoky there that only the faint green glow of the energy swords could be seen – Anise dared not to toss any grenades into that area.

Near the area where the corridor led to the bridge were Jolinar and Leto, though Leto was more exposed and didn't even bother hiding partially behind a pillar. Jolinar was duel-wielding zat'nik'tels and firing in quite a rapid fashion towards the clusters of Jaffa that were ringed down one after the other. Leto... Anise only had a moment to stare in utter awe at just how she wielded the two ruby-red kara-kesh that she wore. She caught bolts of gold and blue being fired at her, lacing them as one would stretch a weaving cloth in mid-air, and flung the crackling bolts back at the Jaffa.

“Charge at 95 percent!” she barely heard the tinny voice of the Jaffa on the bridge crackle through. “Another fleet – four ships – has been pulled into field! It is Ba'al!”

It had to have been the wide-field, unencrypted broadcast over the communicator from Dr. Jackson and the others in their reality that must have attracted not only them to the system, but also Anubis, and now Ba'al. She could not help but wonder how many more fleets were going to be pulled into this battle – if any other fleets survived Dakara.

“Grenade!”

Anise blinked and immediately dove towards Malek without another thought as the faint clink of a grenade being thrown into the area between her and Leto's Jaffa landed. She was immediately jerked forward as a protective arm and body wrapped around her, just as the grenade exploded. Everything around her went silent as a loud ringing shook in her head and ears. She blinked and found herself curled slightly forward, on her knees, and looked up to see that it had been Lantash who had shielded her.

Embarrassed, for she was quite aware at what may have transpired long ago between this reality's Lantash/Martouf and Anise/Freya, she scooted away and hastily nodded her thanks. She saw Malek roll up from his crouch as well, briefly giving her a concerned look, as the ringing in her ears slowly subsided. However, none of them positioned themselves, or fired off another shot as a sudden darkness plunged across the intersection and what she could only assume, the entire ship.

A shudder unlike that of the volleys that had been pounding the ship rolled through, before a high-pitched whine that even pierced the ringing in her ears briefly filled the air. As soon as that stopped, a brief silence filled the air as the last of the ringing in her ears subsided. At once, the bridge communication crackled, “The mothership's shields are permanently down! The interdiction field is still up!”

“Fire all!” she heard Leto shout from where she was, most likely into an open channel. It didn't matter at this point if the enemy heard the orders – they were already being boarded.

Not ten seconds after the order left her lips, Anise saw the unlikeliest of people to even run into the fray here. Ba'al and a host of Jaffa at his command had arrived. She then realized that Leto's firing of the Eye of Ra prototype must have also destroyed Ba'al's fleet as well, and most likely some of Leto's own ships. But, just as the wily system lord arrived, the heavens opened up again as the sounds of the transport rings charging and descending from above filled the air.

“No!”

She immediately turned her attention from where Ba'al and his Jaffa were, and to Malek who had uttered that shout of denial. Much to her horror, she saw that both Aldwin and Jolinar had broken away from their fights and were sliding towards the nearest transport ring that had just become active. Akesios followed suit, sliding into the bright circle just as the first of the rings landed upon the ground.

“Do not wait for us,” she heard one of them say before they were immediately transported up. However, what was transported down in their wake were not enemy Jaffa troops, but rather a complement of four Kull soldiers.

 

~*~*~*~

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

 

Though Aldwin was a passenger within his own body, he had to admit, he was slightly terrified at just how frighteningly efficient both Asteria and Akesios had cut down the Kull soldiers that had been queuing for this ring transport. Splatters of the unusual blood color of the Kull soldiers, along with severed limbs and heads were scattered everywhere as he felt Asteria stand up, sheathing her left energy sword.

However, for all of their swiftness in dispatching the enemy forces, they had not escaped unscathed. He could feel her work on the bare minimum to stem some of the blood from the deep gash across their chest, knowing that she could not divert too much resources or attention to the wound until they were safe. He felt her unholster the zat'nik'tel and hold it loosely in their left hand, though a zap behind them made her turn around to see what had caused it.

Not surprisingly, it had been Jolinar who decided to spit a golden bolt from her staff weapon and into the lifeless body of a Kull soldier. Whether that had been done in pure frustration or otherwise, he didn't know. What he did know was that both Asteria and Akesios had brought down the Kull soldiers faster than Jolinar could react to and start shooting.

“It twitched,” Jolinar stated. He felt his symbiote roll their eyes before huffing a sigh of exasperation.

“The way is clear for now,” Akesios called out from where he was at the entrance to this staging area. He felt his symbiote hurry towards where the Atanik was, with Jolinar following at their side as he saw out of the corner of his symbiote-controlled eyes, her slinging the staff weapon across her back and unholstering her dual zat'nik'tels again.

As the three of them silently and quickly emerged, and started down the empty corridor, they could hear thumps that shuddered through the ship from the volleys that Leto's remaining fleet was raining down. However, unlike what they had experienced on board Leto's mothership, none of the shudders that ran through were strong enough to send them stumbling. Aldwin could only surmise that they had been transported to a non-essential area that most volleys would not disable or destroy. He had to admit, that was a brilliant piece of tactical deployment by Anubis. By directly controlling from where the Kull soldiers and Jaffa were transported to via ring transport, anyone riding the stream back would be stuck in an area where they would have to either fight or find a way through to critical areas.

“Here,” Jolinar said, hurrying forward towards a local console. Breaking the side panel open, she started to rearrange the crystals before standing back up and activated the console. Overriding the locality of the area gave them a very limited view of their current location, but at least they would have a good idea of where exactly they had to go to take the interdiction field down and to the core. The only problem would be just how many of Anubis's forces remained on the ship and would be waiting for them in those areas – at least he thought that both Jolinar and Akesios had come with him for that purpose.

“Best I can tell,” Jolinar said, “is that we are somewhere in the storage areas. Here is where the interdiction field is being generated from--” she pointed to a place twenty-four levels up from where they currently were, which looked to be non-essential storage areas “--but the entrance to the engine core chamber is on the same level.”

“Except that there are many corridors between the field generator and the core,” Akesios rumbled from beside them. “Is it possible to detonate the explosive at the field generator and have it destroy both the ship and fleet?”

“My host does not know,” he heard Asteria say as he supplied the answer in their shared space. “He is most familiar with the destruction of core systems and of blowing up Netu with a variant of this explosive.”

“There are several prisoner facilities above the field generator level,” Jolinar stated, pulling the map out again. “We know that Anubis has a tendency to capture prisoners to bolster his army, instead of outright killing them. He still might have some from Dakara... assuming that he has not destroyed all of his enemy fleets in the system.”

“A prisoner revolt may just buy us the distraction needed then,” Asteria stated, taking a step back. “Let us proceed then.”

~~~

Four Kull soldiers.

Malek considered them very lucky that no other Kull soldiers descended from the next batch that was being ringed down. However, the indiscriminate fire that the soldiers splashed all over the place, forced everyone to dive for cover. Pillars exploded with the sheer amount of force the weaponry that the soldiers had, that were being poured into their hiding area. Enemy Jaffa followed up with golden lances of their staff weapon, gouging holes into the floor, along walls, and into the already on-fire pillars.

Thick smoke hung heavy in the air, as Malek skidded to the pillar where several of Leto's Jaffa had been, as several golden lances peppered the air where he had been. A couple of Leto's Jaffa had managed to dodge the earlier grenade, but had then been cut down by the Kull. He winced and dialed down the painful sensation of several sharp flecks of metal and stone cutting into his left arm and face as he turned slightly to avoid more of the shrapnel. He dared not glance out from the precarious, temporary hiding spot he was behind. With the pounding it was taking, even if he slid all the way down to the ground, the pillar was going to disappear into heated slag sooner rather than later.

He could barely see out into the smoke-filled area anyways, with only the sights of blue bolts from the Kull soldiers, golden or sizzling bolts from staff weapons or zat'nik'tels from either return fire or pinned fire, being the only things highlighting the place. He hoped that Lantash and Anise were all right – even Leto as well – but he could not worry about them at the moment. Pulling out one of his zat'nik'tels, he could hear the dying yells of Jaffa all around, punctuating the sounds of weapons fire. Some were defiant in their defense of the area – to prevent Anubis's forces from getting a foothold into the key corridor, while others were just shouts that were trying to scare the Kull soldiers and enemy Jaffa.

With no Tau'ri weaponry designed to stop Kull soldiers, there was only one other option that he could use to possibly slow the near-unstoppable things. It had only been used once before – when he, along with Brisa, Risune, and Xau had encountered two Kull soldiers in a facility that they had been in the middle of sabotaging. They had been very lucky that their idea had worked and that there was only two soldiers to deal with. However, since that time, he and the others had not encountered any other Kull soldiers.

Forcefully breaking open the zat'nik'tel, he disconnected the focusing crystal from the power core, and threw it away. He then pulled out his other zat'nik'tel and fired two rapid shots directly into power core. It immediately lit up like an activated symbol, except that the bright red color of the power core was rapidly transitioning into a white-hot element. Snatching the thing up, he clamped down and locked out his host on all functions of their shared body. Back then, there had been four of them on his team – two able to distract while the other two did what he was about to do. Here, he had no such luxury of a distraction, and thus needed to boost his speed and accuracy considerably.

Leaping forward as he saw a small break in fire, along with a slight parting in smoke near him, he nimbly dodged the two enemy Jaffa that had been firing at his position. Two more steps turned into a leap as he smashed directly into the nearest Kull soldier, planted the mechanism at the base of the soldier's skull and rolled off of him. He barely dodged the blue bolts from another Kull soldier's weapon that had tracked him, and threw himself behind the nearest pillar. Unfortunately, even with his unnatural burst of speed, he still was not fast enough to avoid being hit.

Blinding, white-hot pain erupted on his left arm as he rolled into cover and hit something soft and hard at the same time. Shunting as much of the pain aside, he was startled more out of the sheer adrenaline that ran through him than the pain when an ice-cold hand clamped down on the fire that had been lit up upon his clothes and skin. It greatly stung, but at least the fire was smothered. He didn't have time to look up to see who had administered the brief first aid, for a _thwump_ reverberated and cut through the noise of the cries of the dying and weapons being fired. The modified zat'nik'tel had exploded into a small arresting mass of molten slag.

Snatching up the nearest end of a staff weapon he saw, his luck held out as it was a full length weapon and not a broken one. There was just one thing though – the weight of the staff weapon indicated that it only had one or two shots left. He would have to make his shot count.

Just as he ducked back out again and activated the weapon in one smooth action, he saw the bright glow of the molten slag on the far side of the chamber. He fired right at the slag and a rather large shower of blood, guts, and of the materials that made up of the Kull soldier's armor explode upon impact. He did not stay to admire his handiwork though, and immediately ducked back into cover, just as several tracers of blue bolts and golden lances pounded the pillar that temporarily protected him.

Tossing away the useless weapon as he leaned against the cover, he took a couple of deep, exhausted breaths. There was too much pain that could not be shunted away. He only had a moment to try to refocus himself before the cool, metallic gloved hand of Leto clamped around his injured arm. He blearily looked up and heard her say, “One of the Kull soldiers has been killed. There are three more. Show me what needs to be done.”

He held back a grimace as he unholstered his other zat'nik'tel, doing his best to ignore the excruciating pain lancing through his wounds. The Tok'ra were never meant to fight in prolonged battles. They were never soldiers. They were the spies, the infiltrators, the saboteurs – but that would not be enough to survive. “We need another zat'nik'tel,” he said, in a half-growl of anger, allowing that to drive him to continue to fight, “and another distraction.”

~~~

It was quite chaotic, in that it looked more like overly large cats pouncing and tearing up every enemy Jaffa in sight when they had freed them from their cells. Aldwin was half-horrified, half-fascinated at just how utterly destructive the Ataniks were and what they left in their wake. Of course, it could have been the result of all of those Ataniks who had been taken prisoner still on quite a high dosing of nish'ta that caused them to respond violently to Ra's call-to-arms, but regardless...

Even though Asteria was moving them with purpose across the carnage and blood-slicked floors, he was still surprised at the actions of Akesios. Without the nish'ta, he thought that the cat-like creature would have immediately gone after and attempted to kill Ra as soon as they had freed the system lord and the other Ataniks that had been taken prisoner. To his, and also to his symbiote's surprise, Akesios merely stuck with them through the fight.

Now though, the Atanik was currently at a console, typing away with his claws before making a quick gesture for all of them to come towards him. “What is it?” he heard his symbiote ask.

“I can disable the interdiction field, but there seems to be a subroutine that links it to the engine room's forcefield. A failsafe or just poor routing of power, if you will,” Akesios stated. “If I increase the field past maximum, it draws power straight from the forcefield protecting the engine room and completely drains it. Right now, it the field is quite strong in order to hold many ships within a wide range of the field, but if I decrease it to even let your ship go, we will never make it through to destroy Anubis's ship.”

“How many enemies are between here and the engine room?” Jolinar demanded.

“None,” the Atanik answered. “All Jaffa were drawn from the area by my brethren.” Akesios stepped back from the console with what looked to be a furrowed, frustrated expression upon his face, though Aldwin wasn't too sure of it, since it was incredibly hard to read the creature. “Even with my top speed, it will take me at least 45 seconds to run back from the engine room – not enough time before the explosive goes off.”

“I will--”

“No,” he heard Asteria speak up, as his own thoughts echoed in sync with his symbiote. “I shall set off the explosive. My host knows where precisely to put this type of explosive created to maximize the damage done not only to the ship but to Anubis's fleet.” While it wasn't the whole truth, there was some truth to his symbiote's words – it was from his countless of times of listening to Lysana describe how she took down Goa'uld motherships.

Jolinar frowned, but did not get a chance to voice her objection before Asteria reached out and pointed to the map, indicating, “There are rings here and here.” He felt her crouch down and rummage through two of the enemy Jaffa pouches and pulled out two communicators. Setting them to the same frequency, she handed one to the Atanik, saying, “Turn the field to maximum. As soon as I get into the engine room, turn off the field. You will draw the Jaffa back to this room, so you will have to make your way to the rings in this area--” she pointed to an area on the console map “--as quickly as possible.”

“But how will you get out?” Jolinar asked.

“I have this,” he heard his symbiote say, and reach down into the satchel that had been tied around their waist belt. Asteria pulled out the final tunneling crystal – the cuboid one, briefly showing the two it before shoving it back into the satchel. She then shucked off both kara-kesh and took the zat'nik'tel-like chargers off, handing it all to Jolinar. “Take these. You will need it more than I do.”

“What of your home? What of your dimension?” Akesios surprisingly spoke up, openly frowning as Jolinar reluctantly accepted the weapons.

“We are Tok'ra, Atanik,” Asteria stated, taking a step back as Aldwin felt her unholster their single zat'nik'tel and activate it. It was pretty much depleted, but he hoped there was at least a few shots left if needed. Carrying a staff weapon dropped by the enemy Jaffa was going to be quite unwieldy, and with the amount of time they had between setting off the explosive and getting to the transport ring, they could not afford to be encumbered.

“Our entire lives were spent fighting the system lords, but we finally achieved victory after victory with the Tau'ri helping us. My host and I are outcasts; ones who did unthinkable things and whom have no where else to turn to. While both of us desire to live, we desire more to see our friends and companions return to the peace that they deserve, and to give this galaxy a fighting chance against Anubis. You may hate the Goa'uld, but know this – you and your kind do not stand alone.”

It seemed that the words his symbiote said greatly satisfied the Atanik as he saw him slowly blink once before bowing ever so slightly towards them before reaching out and pushing the appropriate buttons to dial up the interdiction field to maximum. Without another glance at them, Aldwin could feel his symbiote clamp down on all functions, getting ready to flood naquadah into their shared bloodstream to boost athletic and mental capabilities for a short time. Having felt it done before, though in a sarcophagus, Aldwin was ready. He and his symbiote may have had many differences that were exacerbated, especially here, but right now, they were of one mind.

_**Let's go.** _

~~~

Malek was openly disgusted that it was Ba'al who had called for surrender as the sounds of the Kull soldiers and their weapons, along with the sizzling blasts of staff weapons died down. The smoke certainly didn't die, but with the echoes of heavy footsteps marching down several corridors, he knew that they had no other choice – they had to surrender. He just hated hearing it issue from Ba'al's lips, especially since the system lord was _allied_ with them.

However, the thick, choking smoke that hung in the room started to swirl as an unusual gust of hot wind seemed to blast across the entire area. At once, it was whipped up into a dirty grey sphere that seemingly hung over their heads, giving light to the destruction and death that had been wrought at this intersection. Layers upon layers of dead Jaffa, along with two of the Kull soldiers littered the floor, interspersed with so much dust, stone, and metallic debris.

He shifted from the sitting position he had hoped to only briefly adopt to catch his breath, wincing as the cauterized wounds he received on his left arm pulled. That was the most serious wound he had to divert bodily resources to stopping the bleeding from the brachial artery. He could feel the many small scrapes and cuts elsewhere bleed into clothing, but if he did not stop the bleeding on this nicked artery, then his host would eventually bleed out. The pressure that Leto was placing on that part of his arm with one of her kara-kesh gilded hands was helping, but as soon as the heavy footsteps of enemy Jaffa grew louder, she removed her hand and stood up from her crouch. With a great amount of effort, he lifted his right arm and pressed his right hand against the wound.

“No,” he heard Anise whisper from the other side of the chamber and turned his gaze towards his left to see several enemy Jaffa and at least two more Kull soldiers pour into the area. Following them was a black-clad, billowing-cloaked Goa'uld who had his hood up. Anubis entered, and two more of his Jaffa followed him, one of whom was holding a semi-struggling Qetesh.

He saw Ba'al kneel on the ground, pure anger written upon the system lord's expression as he saw him and his Jaffa placed their hands behind their heads. Those that could, did so, but those that could not, such as he, Malek, were forcibly wrenched up from where they were by Anubis's Jaffa and made to kneel upon the debris-laced floor. How Malek managed to keep himself from showing that his wounds were aggravating him, he never knew, but one thing he did know was that this was the closest that he was ever going to get to Anubis, and he needed to take advantage of it.

~~~

The hum of the forcefield being set at maximum made his teeth feel weird, but it did muffle the wailing klaxons. However, funny-feeling teeth was the least of Aldwin's concerns as Asteria ceded control over their body to allow him to place the explosive in the correct area. He forcibly wrenched open one of the larger panels that protected the radiation from the core. At such a short exposure, there would be no damage to him or to his symbiote that his symbiote could not fix. However, any longer, especially if they flew through hyperspace, it would become akin to what Malek and Alexei had received in radiation dosing from the naquadria.

There was a small niche within the structure that house the core – the perfect place, according to the memories he had of Lysana telling him about ship engines, to place any sort of explosive. Taking the explosive out of its pouch, he carefully wiggled it into the area. As soon as it was secured, he felt his symbiote mesh with him, taking over some functions to enhance their speed. His mind was left open to direct her to the weakest area where they could use their last tunneling crystal to get out of the chamber.

He pressed the two focusing crystals ever so slightly and heard the crunching sound of the collapser crystal begin its work. That and a blast of heat coming straight from the explosive told him that it was working – and fast.

They sprinted as fast as they could from the platform, leaping across the chasm and to the other side of the room. Taking either of the four thin platforms that connected to the central shaft and core would have taken too long. Smashing into the ground with bone-jarring force, he felt his symbiote roll them forward and back up on their feet. They continued to run towards the area he had indicated. Reaching into the satchel, he pulled out the cuboid crystal and threw it with all of his might at the upcoming wall. It flared brilliantly bright for a moment, and just as he reached it, he burst through the carved wall and into the empty hall on the other side.

~~~

“My lord! The interdiction field is no longer active!” Malek heard the First Prime of Anubis state.

“What?!” Anubis roared, just as they all jerked to one side – the sign of sub-light engines being pushed to the maximum. However, that indignant, angry shout never even reached its apex as a hissing, yowling blur suddenly attacked the nearest enemy Jaffa. It was swiftly followed by a whirlwind of sickly green energy blades slicing into other Jaffa.

The battle began again in earnest, especially with just how enthusiastically Ba'al's remaining Jaffa had knocked into the gut and heads of Anubis's Jaffa holding them. The howl of the half-ascended system lord shook and rung ears as Malek saw him activate something upon them. A brief moment of light as bright as a distant star lit up the area as many of the enemy Jaffa, along with the Kull soldiers, and Anubis and his hostage, Qetesh, were beamed out of harm's way.

Malek saw Akesios collapse into a heap on the ground, stopped mid-attack by the disappearance of the enemy forces – beamed away by Asgard technology. He saw Jolinar fling away the Jaffa that she had just killed with the sickly green blades, as she cursed the heavens for such a cowardly escape. However, he barely heard it as he felt a pit of dread open up in his stomach. Those blades had been on Aldwin's hands...

“Where is he?!” Anise cried, beating him to the punch. “Where is Aldwin?!”

“Here!” he heard a familiar shout and to his and his host's delight, they saw him enter from the damaged and forcibly opened doors that led to the engine room. “I am--”

“Ashrak! Behind you. Aldwin!” Lantash shouted, already springing into action.

It was much too late though, as Malek wrenched himself up from where he had been kneeling, trying to get to Aldwin as fast as he could. He saw Aldwin pull out a knife – a crystal-carving knife – ready to defend himself against the semi-visible assassin that had either followed Aldwin back or had been ringed to the ship during the attack. However, the wicked-looking knife that the assassin wielded was all-too familiar looking to him. The last time he had seen such a blade was at the former Tau'ri Alpha Site in their reality.

Suddenly, something violently slammed into the ship that sent all of them reeling. Malek crashed to the ground and tried to quickly get up, but he also saw assassin stumble, giving both Aldwin and Lantash a clear advantage as they found surer footing. Aldwin reached the assassin first, artfully dodging the assassin's recovery attack. With considerable force, Malek saw him slam his knife into the chest of the assassin, bodily lifting the assassin up. Smashing the assassin back into the ground, he saw him yank his knife out and rolled clear. The Ashrak's invisibility cloak fizzled yet again. This time, it was completely rendered inert as soon as Lantash fired several bursts of a staff weapon, nearly point blank, into the stomach of the assassin.

However, Lantash's staff weapon immediately clattered to the ground as Malek saw him take a couple of shaky steps towards the dead Ashrak. Aldwin's knife immediately hit the ground as well, with the echoes seemingly louder than usual. Horror graced both of their faces as Malek stood up with some assistance from one of Leto's surviving Jaffa. He was not the only one to approach with caution.

“What happened?” Ba'al demanded, being the furthest from the scene.

“That cannot be,” Lantash whispered, looking up and over at all of them with fear in his eyes before looking back at the body.

Leto was the first to reach them, and a grim look immediately eclipsed her face. But as the others approached, Malek didn't need to go further than the few steps he had taken. He could feel naquadah flowing through the Ashrak's veins, though it was slowly fading, due to the last throes of a dying symbiote. It seemed that Leto's theories were correct after all, for clad in the armor of an Ashrak was the slightly disfigured, but no less distinct face of Egeria's host.

The Ashrak's eyes flared golden for one last time before they slowly faded, accompanied by the whisper of, “Die, traitor.”

Where there was supposed to be silence was instead, filled with the rapid beeps of a grenade that had been activated. Malek's vision was briefly awash in blindingly bright light that had a searing heat accompanying it, before falling into darkness.

~◊~

_Original reality_

 

“We just got word from Stargate Command,” Daniel heard Sam say as both he and Gant looked up from their rather silent observation of the glowing alternate-dimension gate that was sitting in the empty hangar bay. While it was far and away from where all the F-302's, the bay was also additionally cordoned off with explosive bolts, as a precaution. If anything other than the three Tok'ra came through while they were enroute to Earth, they would be able to easily jettison the thing out into space.

Of course, bringing it to Earth was risky, but considering the Ori were everywhere, there was no other place they could safely put the alternate-dimension gate where they could constantly monitor it. Thus bringing it to Earth, though once the three Tok'ra returned, the SGC was of the mind to bury the gate. For once, the IOA was in agreement with the sentiment.

“Atlantis says they might have found something that looks like our alt-gate here,” Sam continued. “It's glowing and all, but its being guarded by several squads of Wraith-worshippers. It's also covered in stuff, so they're not sure if its actually like our alt-gate. Unfortunately, the place is surrounded by an overly abundant amount of people who have not been culled, due to the 'protection' that the Wraith-worshippers extend to them. Looks like they're not going to give up the Pegasus alt-gate with out a heavy fight. Atlantis says they're keeping their distance for the time being and monitoring the situation.”

“Oh well that's great,” he heard Gant sarcastically answer. “If those three don't come back through our gate here, they'll be stepping into a Wraith cult.”

“So we _have_ to get them to arrive through this one,” Daniel stated.

“Yeah,” Sam nodded. “Got any ideas?”

He shook his head. “Not a clue... or at least not yet.”

~◊~

_Alternate reality_

 

The first thing Malek felt was an itchiness from the various amounts of wounds upon his body healing – including the severe wound upon his left arm. Thankfully, the artery had seemed to have been healed, but it had definitely not been by him. The second thing he felt was the slumbering form of his host in their shared space. Absently patting his host as a caretaker would, he went back through his memories of what had happened – and found nothing. All he remembered was seeing the grenade in the Ashrak's hand and then it exploding.

He opened his eyes, only to see the ceiling of a Goa'uld ship greet his vision before hearing a familiar voice say, “It's good to see you're finally awake, Malek.”

Glancing over from the ceiling, he saw Aldwin standing beside where he was laying, slipping what looked to be a healing device back into a pouch along his waist belt. While he was grateful that he had been healed, he did wonder why he had not been fully healed by the device. And from what Aldwin looked like as well, with a cloth bandage wrapped around his neck, it seemed that he was not fully healed either.

“Most of the power sources for the healing devices used are nearly depleted,” Aldwin spoke up, answering his unasked question. “Leto made the decision to have anyone with symbiotes to try to work on their host's bodies first while she diverted the devices to heal her Jaffa who are on tretonin. There were a lot of extensive injuries, and not a lot of resources to spare to try to replace the power source for the devices.”

“Regardless,” he spoke up, pushing the thin blanket that had been covering him off as he felt his wounds pull beneath the cloth bandages that had been wrapped around him. He felt a chill hit what bare skin had not been covered by the bandages, and saw that there was a neatly folded pile of clothing at the end of the pallet. “Thank you.”

_**And we should try to stop ending up in the healing wards,**_ he heard his host sleepily say. Deigning not to reply to the slightly sarcastic commentary, he nudged his host back to sleep and got a sleepy yawn of acknowledgment in return.

“You're welcome,” Aldwin replied before picking up the pile of clothing and bringing it closer. “Freya is currently retrieving some food and water for you.”

“What happened after that grenade exploded? Was that truly Egeria?” he asked as he gingerly took the shirt from the pile and carefully dressed himself, taking extreme care not to reopen any of the sealed wounds. He was silently grateful for Aldwin's assistance in the matter.

Silence answered him as he glanced up to see a pensive look upon Aldwin's face. “Yes,” Aldwin answered after a moment. “However, that grenade also erased all trace of the Ashrak. We cannot biologically confirm it.”

Looking back down, he pressed his lips together in anger and in frustration. Leto's words about Egeria were true, yet he still wanted to irrationally deny them. But there were larger things to worry about than trying to deny the truth that had been laid out before them. “Anubis beamed himself and Qetesh away using Asgard technology.”

“So I heard,” Aldwin answered. “But, your explosive worked.”

He glanced up from swinging his legs out from underneath the blanket so that he could stand and put on the rest of his clothes. Half-bracing himself against the lip of the bedside, he waited with an expectant look upon his face about the results. “So we may have killed Anubis as soon as he beamed on board his ship?”

“I don't think we did,” Aldwin shook his head. “I think he may have beamed to another ship, possibly cloaked and waiting. Ba'al did the same thing in our dimension when it was clear that the Tau'ri and Jaffa forces would overwhelm him at Dakara. He beamed into my... Leto's ship.” Malek frowned, but did not speak as Aldwin continued, saying, “At the present, Leto's ship was the only one to make it out, and even then, the ship has suffered extensive damages. I heard that one of the cargo ships that had not been destroyed went back to the system to survey what had been wrought, and found wreckage strewn from the planetoid closest to the sun and past the fifth gas giant. Apparently, the Atanik planet and two of its moons had been destroyed as well.”

Malek blinked in utter surprise. He had not expected the yield of the explosive to be that destructive. In fact, by all of his calculations, even at such a close range, the explosive would only destroy the fleet. “That cannot be possible... my calculations... unless...”

A slightly pained smile twitched upon Aldwin's face as he heard him say, “All those times that Lysana said that I wasn't paying attention to her stories... I was. I was listening to her... and thanks to what she said, I knew exactly where to put that explosive. Anubis's fleet is destroyed... and Ra is dead as well.”

“Ra?” he questioned, knowing that there was nothing he could do to comfort Aldwin with the painful memories of Lysana. He knew that his previous host had sometimes complained to him that Aldwin seemed to stare off into the distance whenever she was describing how she had taken down yet another Goa'uld ship. He too had thought at the time that perhaps Aldwin had been bored of listening to such stories over and over again, but Lysana did love talking about her missions. However, there had been times, from his perspective, that it seemed that Aldwin greatly enjoyed just listening to Lysana speak.

“It seems to be a recurring pattern that your host's people enjoy doing,” his friend answered in a lighter tone. “Killing Ra, that is. He had been taken prisoner at Dakara. We freed him and others held captive while on board the ship, and allowed them to be the distraction needed. He did not make it off the ship before it exploded.”

“A third time makes it more of a habit,” he answered, ignoring the sleepy cheer coming from his host at the news of Ra's death, as he put on the rest of his clothes and re-attached the waist belt that had a fully-charged zat'nik'tel clipped to it.

“In which I hope is not needed,” a voice spoke up from the entrance to the healing wards.

Both he and Aldwin looked over to see Freya entering, following by Apollo, no longer in the cat-like form. Malek took the rather unappetizing cube of food that was as large as the palm of his hand from Freya, along with a pouch of water. Taking a couple of bites of the preserved energy ration, he managed to hold back a grimace of distaste before washing it down with a few gulps of water. If this was all they had for food, then things were more dire than he had initially thought.

“We have reached a decision on the next course of action,” Apollo continued to say. “Or rather, I should say that it was determined for us before we could consider taking action.”

“What do you mean?” Aldwin asked.

“We were hailed,” the Atank answered. “We were discovered in the asteroid that we hid behind, and were hailed.”

“Wait, where are we?” Malek interrupted, placing the half-eaten cube of preserved food down, his stomach, along with his host, rebelling at just how disgusting it tasted. It provided the nutrients, but it was incredibly hard for him to keep down, even with his constant washing of water to keep it down.

“We are in the Abydos system,” Apollo answered. “It was the closest system to where we were that had the natural resources within its asteroid belt to enact repairs. It was risky, but we would not have lasted many more days to try to find a more isolated place.”

“Apollo, who hailed us?” Freya asked, frowning.

“The most curious of system lords,” the Atanik answered, folding his hands together, looking quite troubled. “Egeria.”

 

~*~*~*~

 


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

 

Though her symbiote had done as promised and did not allow her to see the memories of what had happened, Freya knew that they had escaped the system – and Anubis – by the skin of their teeth. From just how damaged the ship looked, along with the many injuries that her friends and the Jaffa on board had sustained, it was clear that they had almost surrendered to the system lord. Even though she knew her symbiote had done everything she could to keep them alive, they too had not escaped unscathed. Still, her wounds were almost nothing when compared to her friends' injuries.

And yet they all still walked with their heads held high, eyes wary and alert, and she wished that she had the courage that they had – that she was able to get over her long ago fear, her nightmares, and her horrible memories. She could feel her symbiote admonish her for seeing weakness where there was none, but she could not help her thoughts.

“I received word from Lantash that we have been discovered?” Jolinar's rather brusque tone shook her out of her thoughts as she saw her emerge from another hall to join them. A curt nod from Apollo was all Jolinar needed to look a little more cross than concerned.

Together, the five of them winded their way through debris-covered halls that hung heavy with the smell of smoke, and were somewhat repaired. They arrived at the bridge to find that Lantash was already there, standing to the side and monitoring something on a console while Leto was standing on the communication dais. Strangely enough, Ba'al was standing on the other side of the 'throne' that served as Leto's command chair, but to her surprise, the system lord had been bound and gagged.

It was then that she noticed that every single Jaffa on the bridge did not have symbiotes – they were all on tretonin. She glanced back at Ba'al for a moment before focusing on the last vestiges of Egeria on the projected screen before it vanished. It was not a wonder that Ba'al had been bound and gagged – Leto truly was a rebel system lord and had truly forged an alliance with the Jaffa. But at the same time, her mind was reeling; that had been Egeria she had caught a glimpse of, and from the expressions upon her friends' face, they were all confused and concerned like she was.

“She is offering us assistance in the repair of the vessel,” Leto spoke up, stepping off of the dais and turning around. She saw her weave her kara-kesh gilded hands together, frowning slightly. “Thoughts?”

“We saw her die, Leto,” Lantash said, sounding a little frustrated, angry, and skeptical at the same time. “She tried to kill us. She was Ashrak.”

“And yet she has spoken to us,” Leto stated.

“I believe that we should investigate this,” Jolinar said. “Contact her again and allow Lantash and I to ask her questions to verify her identity.”

“I think we should go down to the surface,” Aldwin spoke up. “Because for all that we know, perhaps Anubis has some technology of sorts to graft a likeness of Egeria upon this Ashrak's visage. Perhaps the Ashrak was just that – an Ashrak. We should proceed as if we have returned from successfully retrieving the materials we need. You happened upon us while we were in need, and after successfully fending off an attack from Osiris, you returned here. You were hoping to enact repairs in secret while ensuring that you did not lead any enemy forces to Abydos.”

Freya found herself nodding in agreement with the idea, even though it was an inherently dangerous lie – especially since they would have to travel down to the planet in a teltac. The cargo ship did not have robust shields of the sort, or the maneuverability to evade a concentrated attack, should their assumptions about Egeria be incorrect. However, the alternative was just to continue to run, towards another solar system that had the necessary materials needed for repairs and hope that the system was unoccupied. There was hope in Aldwin's – that is that perhaps he was right, and that the Ashrak was not Egeria.

“I too, agree with the plan,” Lantash said after a moment, nodding. “But we must have a contingency plan in place, if this does not work.”

“I, along with Aldwin, and Apollo shall go then--” Jolinar began.

“We have to all go,” Aldwin interrupted, shaking his head slightly. “She's expecting all of us back. Any excuse, even in injury, will be scrutinized. She has a sarcophagus and she will expect us to request to use it to heal ourselves, even if we have the dead among us. The fact that we are delaying at the moment is working against us to alleviate such suspicions.”

“Is that your opinion, or that of Asteria, Aldwin?” Leto asked, eyes glittering with disapproval.

She saw Aldwin raise his head slightly, eyes clearer than they had been in the past few days as he unflinchingly looked at Leto. “My opinion,” he answered. “My own opinion and experiences. Any Goa'uld working for Anubis in our reality was constantly scrutinized and monitored. If, in this dimension she is such an agent, she will already grow suspicious of any delays, especially of your non-decision in allowing her people to render aid.”

Silence fell across the bridge for a moment before Leto gave a slight nod, but then asked, “Malek? You have been unusually quiet in this discussion.”

“The Ashrak that wore Egeria's face could be a clone,” Malek said after a moment. “We have seen it done by a system lord over and over again in our dimension. That system lord gained more knowledge from his clones that had been scattered throughout the galaxy. If that is the case, then regardless of what we do, anything that happens now is a trap.”

“Cloning?” Lantash questioned. “How is it possible to clone someone and ensure that their minds are linked?”

“It is not,” Apollo spoke up. “Unless this system lord you speak of, Malek, had stolen more than just the beaming technology from the Asgardians.”

“It was possible, but never confirmed to us Tok'ra,” Malek admitted. “The system lord seemed to have delighted in harassing the Tau'ri and planning to double-cross Anubis, during the time he had been alive. We did eventually kill him and all of his clones by systematically hunting them down.”

Apollo was silent for a moment before saying, “Last I remember hearing from the Asgard, they had their own galaxy-spanning enemy to contend with and could not help patrol this galaxy.” The Atanik placed a hand upon his chin and furrowed his brows, a very human gesture if Freya had ever seen one. “There is a chance, a small one, that Anubis may have managed to dial the Asgardian galaxy and stolen more technology than just the beaming mechanism. If so, he is more dangerous than initially thought.”

“Then are you willing to continue to fight with us, Atanik?” Leto asked.

Freya saw him look up, expression unreadable for a few long moments. Finally, he nodded once in affirmation, saying, “For now, our goals are aligned.”

“Should all of you return to Abydos and discover that Egeria is not who she says she is, then what do you propose as a contingency plan, Lantash?” Leto asked.

“Escape through the chappa'ai if we cannot return to the teltac,” Lantash answered. “There are a few systems that Jolinar and I know that can provide temporary shelter.”

“But if she is an agent of Anubis, would she not already know of all the systems that you have traveled to before? Would she not have agents of her own positioned there to report back?” Freya asked, knowing that what she was about to reveal was a sensitive, painful subject for Malek. However, to not explain herself or the reasoning was even more egregious in error. “In our dimension, Anubis planted cloaked Ashrak as scouts in various systems – some inhabited, some not. They reported back to him on the movement of not only us, but also of our allies. It was how one of our bases became compromised.”

“That... indeed presents a problem,” Leto said, inclining her head slightly. “And it makes me less inclined to allow all of you to leave for the surface.”

“Unless you allow me to dial an address in which she will not have agents stationed at,” the Atanik suddenly spoke up, before turning his attention to Leto. “I know of a planet in which can serve as a safe haven, though it will not have the resources you need to repair your ship.”

“I understand,” Leto answered, though Freya could not help but wonder if she had missed something significant in the calculating looks that Apollo and Leto were giving each other. “Repairs will be ongoing until it can be confirmed as to whether or not Egeria is who she is, or if she is an agent of Anubis. May I have the location?”

~◊~

Aldwin cautiously descended the ramp as the hot, dry blast of sand-crusted wind pelted his face. His zat'nik'tel was in his right hand, but he did not hold it up as Jolinar and Malek did, both of whom were ahead of him and the others. Shielding his eyes with his left, he looked up after clearing the teltac to see the raised pyramid structure that usually served as a docking area for a mothership. The moons orbiting Abydos were out, shining clear white with shadows in the blue sky.

“It is clear,” Jolinar crisply stated, continuing to hold her zat'nik'tel out and activated. “Let us go.”

Cautiously, the six of them, Apollo included, made their way through the flat sand, towards the structure that house the chappa'ai. Though Leto had not initially wanted any of them to go down to the surface, after much convincing by all of them, she had let them go. However, contingency plans were in place in the event that this was truly a trap and not a misunderstanding. Aldwin hoped that it was more misunderstanding than trap.

There had been no doubt that as soon as he and his friends had arrived at the bridge, that Ba'al had been restrained and muzzled upon finding out the rather large number of tretonin-taking Jaffa that Leto had. It seemed that those Jaffa had to have been called out from their secretive duties to replace or help their more heavily injured, sybmiote-carrying comrades. That had led to the unspoken outing of Leto as a rebel Goa'uld, not only to Ba'al, but also to Lantash and Jolinar.

However, unlike the system lord, it seemed that Lantash and Jolinar had both taken the Jaffa on tretonin with some mild suspicion and curiosity. To Aldwin, it seemed that the two had softened considerably while within his, Malek, and Freya's presences. That and the two were still recovering from their shock upon discovering the Ashrak bearing Egeria's face – and then a transmission from Egeria herself.

He had seen the need within Leto's eyes – the want to confirm that whom they thought was their ally had not turned. Despite her ruthlessness and want to exploit the knowledge of a Harcesis, Aldwin still found that Leto had more compassion than he gave her credit for. She cared about her Jaffa and still wanted to save Egeria, even though she blamed Egeria for the death of this dimension's Malek and Asteria. He recognized the desperation in her eyes, for it reflected his and his former symbiote's own in their own dimension whenever they had stared at themselves in the mirror while serving Anubis and Ba'al.

Climbing the steps that took them past the obelisks entrance, he could feel the tension rising among them as they finally entered the first antechamber. Inside, instead of Jaffa pointing their weapons at them, all he saw were villagers from the settlements near the naquadah mines. Both Malek and Jolinar had deactivated their weapons, cautiously holstering them. He did the same and heard Lantash, Freya, and Apollo do the same. For all intents and purposes, it seemed that the villagers were going about their routine – that is most likely arranging what ever had been shipped through the chappa'ai for transport back to the villages or to Egeria's stronghold.

A few curiously looked at them, but most did not pay attention and went about their business. Jolinar immediately took the lead, brushing past the villagers and going deeper into structure. They followed, and after passing through the antechamber, they arrived at the room where the chappa'ai was. It was deactivated, but there were more villagers, along with a few of Egeria's children milling about. The queen herself was also present, and looked up when the six of them entered.

“Ah, you have finally returned!” she exclaimed, handing a basket of something over to one of her other children before approaching. Her initial seemingly delighted demeanor was quickly dashed as she saw just how injured they all still looked, especially with the bandages wrapped around them. “Are any of you injured?” she asked, looking at them with motherly concern. “I apologize for requesting to meet you here, but it would have taken many hours for the caravan to return. Though now, perhaps I should have sent you to my compound instead...”

“Our injuries are healing, Egeria,” he spoke up, taking a few steps forward, past Malek and Jolinar and straight towards one of the villagers who looked to be carrying a woven basket. Picking up the basket from the villager, he gave a quick glance on the contents within and gave it back to the villager, before continuing to say, “but as you may have heard from Leto, we encountered Osiris and narrowly escaped destruction and capture, due to her intervention. However, on our flight back to Abydos, we were intercepted by Anubis and nearly destroyed by him. Leto sends her apologies for not alerting you earlier to our arrival – we wanted to ensure that Anubis was not pursuing us.”

Egeria nodded in understanding as she stopped before him, smiling in relief. “I shall immediately send--”

Aldwin was not the only one to frown as she paused mid-sentence as a puzzled look over took her features and her gaze slid from him to something behind him. He looked back, but none of the others had showed any signs of anything wrong... except for the very strange sight of Apollo crouching next to the dialing device. The Atanik looked like he was rummaging through the base of the device. Freya... no Anise was standing next to the Atanik...

That subtle of a change, the control over the host body between Freya, kind-hearted and sweet, to bold Anise, who always protected her host from any type of threat, told him everything. Ever since they had arrived in this dimension, Anise never took over unless it was to protect her host from enemy forces. He understood that it was their way of showing that they were different from their dimensional namesake who had died several years ago.

Anise's emergence meant that Egeria was not the ally they thought she was.

“What is the Atanik doing?” Egeria asked.

Aldwin briefly closed his eyes as he took a deep breath, trying to calm not only his thoughts, but also of his symbiote. He was the closest to Egeria, but would his symbiote give him the strength to stop her? He didn't know and was not given another second to contemplate as the clear and audible click of a communicator being pressed by Jolinar decided their fates. “Go,” was all Jolinar stated over the communicator.

Chaos exploded as Aldwin brought up his zat'nik'tel and fired a single shot nearly point-blank into Egeria. He could not feel any response, emotional or otherwise from his symbiote – she was in shock, which meant he was on his own. Egeria collapsed to the ground, just as Lantash deployed the force field. The extent of the queen's betrayal was shown not a second later as Kull soldiers stepped out from behind the columns surrounding the chappa'ai and began firing. Their indiscriminate bolts caused the villagers to dive and run for cover, but there was nothing that he and the others could do for them.

The force field was holding for now, but under the considerable onslaught, it would collapse faster than designed to hold against. Anise was already inputting the sequence into the dialing device, and moments later the _ka-woosh_ of the chappa'ai activating became a comforting sound. Just as he took a couple of steps back up the ramp towards the activate wormhole, he glanced back to see Anise being pushed by Apollo towards the horizon. Jolinar and Lantash were already backing away from the failing force field and running up the ramp.

Holstering his weapon, he bent down to begin dragging Egeria up the ramp, when a vice-like grip landed upon his left arm and tried to tug him away. “Leave her!” he heard Malek shout over the sounds of the Kull weapons impacting the field.

He didn't want to, for he knew that even in shock, his symbiote adored Egeria and wanted to do anything she could to save her. But with the field collapsing and the Kull soldiers marching to pass through the force field, there would not be enough time. It was futile and he wanted to disobey, but he could not bring himself to. Mentally apologizing to his silent symbiote, he let go of Egeria's wrists and turned. Running up the ramp, he leapt through the wormhole.

~◊~

Malek's diving roll into the chappa'ai was thankfully not an idiotic thing to do, as he immediately hit soft dirt and rolled head-over-heels and up onto his feet. It also saved him from the Kull weapon blast that gouged a rather deep hole into the dark, moist dirt where he had been, just before the wormhole was deactivated. However, a strange _whzzt_ noise caused him to look up and back to see a semi-transparent, glass-like thing envelope the chappa'ai. It was so close to the lip of the chappa'ai that it looked almost similar to the Tau'ri chappa'ai iris.

“What...is that?” he heard Freya ask as he looked back and stood up, shaking his head as he felt the wet dirt stick upon his hair. His hands brushed his clothing and ruffled his hair, but the dirt was a little too moist and clumpy, and the air too humid to get rid of most of it.

Standing near the strangely-colored dialing device, was Apollo, in human form again. There was a strange, chest-high, hexagonal column that was right next to the device, and the Atanik had removed his hand from the surface of the slanted hexagonal panel. As he approached, he glanced back, realizing that the chappa'ai did not look like a normal chappa'ai. It looked similar, except more crystalline, cleaner, and prettier – for a lack of a better word – than the usual chappa'ai that he knew. The dialing device next to the hexagonal column also looked similar in design and build – more purple-blue in color and not as dirty or metallic looking as a usual dialing device.

“That is what has kept this planet safe from any type of attack Anubis has launched upon this world,” Apollo said, stepping away as Lantash, Jolinar, and Aldwin also approached, all with quizzical looks upon their faces. “This is my... or rather, the base that my people from another galaxy initially established... before we were taken over and forced to serve Ra.”

“Another galaxy?” Lantash questioned, looking unconvinced and quite wary.

“You.. this chappa'ai and its device are from the Pegasus galaxy,” Malek said after a moment as it hit both him and his host as to where possibly this particular chappa'ai and its dialing device may have come from. “You said to our Tau'ri allies that you were of the Lantean Guards. We know from our reports that some refer to the Tau'ri base established in that galaxy as Atlantis, and it's inhabitants as Lantean.”

“Agentus detachment,” the Atanik clarified. “And yes, you are quite correct. My unit and I were sent here after the Lanteans lost contact with their brethren here. We established a listening post here, but eventually made our way to Tau'ri. That was where we found our own brethren and those of our forefathers taken over by the Goa'uld. We fought, but we failed.”

“And became enslaved to Ra,” Freya quietly finished.

“Were it so fortunate,” Apollo testily answered. “I'd rather have been enslaved to Anubis than to Ra. At least those who bore us Ataniks would have responded appropriately and brought the wrath of their combined forces upon the Goa'uld here. We would not have had wasted thousands of years fighting such a pointless war.”

“Pointless?!” Jolinar hissed, quite incensed. It was only Lantash's hand upon her right arm that prevented her from stepping into the personal space of the Atanik to confront him. “Thousands of us have died, Atanik! Millions more have suffered--”

“And who are you to say that your _queen_ \--” Apollo began, sneering.

“Enough!” Malek heard Aldwin sternly say, planting himself in between the Atanik and Jolinar. “Enough. Can Egeria or those Kull soldiers follow us through?”

“No,” the Atanik answered. “Just before we triggered the ambush, I set the dialing device to scramble the address after Anise dialed. It will take considerable time for her or Anubis to determine what planet was dialed.”

Aldwin nodded. “Then we need to find shelter and wait to see if Leto has made it to the coordinates. Assuming that you have given her these coordinates.” Malek saw the Atanik give Aldwin an indecipherable look. “Since this is a world you are familiar with, Apollo, where do you suggest we go?” Aldwin asked.

“Some of my people whom Ra most likely had not brought with him to Dakara are at the main facility, which is a two-day hike from here. I can assure you though, they are under the influence of nish'ta and will need to be freed from it. However, in and along the way are also several Jaffa outposts. A security detail, if you will, for Ra's paranoia, even though this shield has held up against Anubis's attacks quite well. There is no doubt that the first outpost has already been alerted to the activation of the chappa'ai. They will have already sent scouts to investigate.”

“So then we tell them that we are allied with Ra,” Jolinar began, as Malek saw Aldwin lower his arms between the two slightly, hoping that their initial argument was over.

“They expect either me or Ra's host to be host to a Goa'uld,” Apollo stated. “Since Ra's host is not present, they expect me to carry Ra. Or else I, along with all of you will be shot on sight. They have done so before with Ra's previous lo'tar and will not hesitate now.”

“Wha--” Lantash began in angry protest.

“Asteria, I require your assistance,” the Atanik simply stated, before moving faster than any of them could react by snatching the outstretched arm of Aldwin and twisting it just so that it unbalanced him enough. Malek was not even half-way in drawing his weapon out when to not only his and his host's shock, but all of those there, Apollo grabbed Aldwin by the front of his clothes and forcibly kissed him--

Malek's weapon was nearly up and activated when he realized that what Apollo initiated was not a kiss per se, but rather, the transference of a symbiote from host to host. That was confirmed not a moment later when he saw Apollo stumble backwards, letting Aldwin go. Aldwin was collapsing towards Jolinar, who immediately caught him. With his attention back on the Atanik, Malek saw the tell-tale sign of the tail of a symbiote disappear into the mouth of the Atanik. But he still brought up his weapon and pointed it straight at the Atanik.

“Lower your weapons!” Apollo ordered, righting himself and shaking his head slightly. No one in the clearing, not even Jolinar who was kneeling and half-cradling the unconscious form of Aldwin, with her free arm, had lowered their weapons.

Malek was aware of the sound of stomping footsteps – of Jaffa approaching. He could see the tension within Lantash's stance, and the alarm spread across Anise's eyes. Still, he did not lower his zat'nik'tel. Whatever had happened was unthinkable--

“Lower it or else you will be shot on sight by the Jaffa!” the Atanik insisted. “Allow me to save us and you will have your answers!”

Surprisingly, it was Jolinar who lowered her weapon first, holstering the zat'nik'tel as she adjusted Aldwin within her arms. Malek soon followed and hurried over to help her. Just as the others holstered their weapons, he was half-way in taking Aldwin's weight from Jolinar so that she could stand up from where she had knelt down, when the first of Ra's Jaffa arrived. They were all clad in the familiar sets of the Armor of Horus – the strongest armor alloy created long ago by a now-long dead system lord who had been allied with Ra.

“Lord Ra,” the First Prime stated, kneeling before the Atanik as his cohorts followed suit. “We heard about Dakara and feared the worst. It is heartening to see you alive and well.”

“And it is disheartening to hear you doubt the power and will of your god,” the Atanik answered with the precise inflection of a possessed host.

“I humbly apologize, milord,” the First Prime answered. “I--

“Silence! If you wish to rectify your mistakes and your words, we have much to do,” Apollo said before waving a rather languid hand towards the rest of them. “These are allies of ours from Egeria's court. You will grant them all accords of honored guests. We are also expecting a ship in orbit, specifically one under the command of Leto. You will inform me once it has entered the system. For now, send word to the farthest reaches of where the rest of my host's race is. We shall gather them and ensure that there are no more traitors among us.”

“As you wish, Lord Ra.”

~◊~

Aldwin awoke with a start, gasping for air as the remnants of a strange dream that he could not remember faded from his mind and eyes. He felt ill and feverish, and sought for the comforting presence of his symbiote, before realizing then that there was none to be found. However, where he was laying sunk slightly with the weight of someone sitting beside him and immediately putting a cool cloth upon his head. It felt more like a thousand stinging needles had been placed upon his forehead, and he winced. While the lighting where he was laying was dim, it was not dim enough that he could not see. However, his vision was quite blurred as he looked around--

“It is all right, Aldwin,” he heard Malek say, though it sounded a little too harsh and gratingly loud. “The blindness, fever, and sensitivity to touch and hearing are temporary. It is a side-effect of your body getting used to the lack of a symbiote and integrating tretonin. They will go away soon.”

He continued to blink, slowly letting his eyes adjust to the lighting within the room he was in. Though it felt like forever, it seemed that he had awoken just as the effects of the drug were starting to fade, though not fast enough for him. He was seeing a little better than he did a moment ago, and finally focused on the slightly blurred figure who had risen from sitting next to him to check on something above where he was lying. “What... what happened?” he asked.

“I was about to ask you the same,” Malek answered as Aldwin looked up to see him take whatever had been on the shelf above where he was lying and glance at it before replacing it on the shelf. “I did not realize that you and Asteria had already convinced Apollo to become her host.”

“No,” he said, as the memories slowly trickled back into his mind. He shook his head slightly, “No... we didn't...” He sat up, with the cooling cloth flopping onto his lap. His skin prickled at the sensation of his clothes, bandages, and even the blanket that had been covering him, as the coverings pulled this way and that. He squeezed his eyes closed as he recalled the last few moments when the Atanik had snatched him by the front of his shirt. Asteria had unexpectedly jumped from him and into the Atanik. “I didn't... no,” he said, continuing to shake his head slightly, drawing his knees up to his chest and leaning his forehead into his knees.

“Aldwin...”

“You are awake,” an unexpected voice said a little further away. Aldwin looked up, but try as he might, his vision was still blurry at that far of a distance, though he did recognize the voice belonging to Apollo. “Good,” the Atanik said, taking a few steps in, but did not fully approach and perched himself upon a table of sorts across from where Aldwin was lying. “The presence of the virus belonging to our augmented bracers within you was unexpected. I am glad to see that your mate was able to modify the tretonin drug to cure it.”

“We are not mates,” both he and Malek stated at the same time.

Thanks to his still-blurred vision, he could not decipher the look that Apollo was giving both of them, though the silence that stretched between all of them was starting to become quite uncomfortable. He broke it by asking, “What virus? What augmented bracers?”

“When you died, the bracer that you used to get into the facility to shut down the power source was still attached to you,” Malek explained, though Aldwin thought he heard remorse within his tone. “Anise and I put you into the sarcophagus with the bracer on. It fell off as soon as you were revived, so we implanted Asteria into you, thinking nothing of it.”

He silently nodded, realizing the implications of what may have happened. However, he had more immediate concerns and since the Atanik was here, he focused his attention back on Apollo and asked, “Where is Asteria?”

“Within me,” Apollo answered, and he saw the blurred arm and hand of the Atanik gesture towards the base of his neck. “We remain mostly unblended, but it is a condition in which we had previously agreed to.”

“What?” he said, frowning. “I don't remember--”

“It was an agreement made between your symbiote and me,” the Atanik answered. “She kept it from you because she knew that you would never approve of it.” The Atanik tapped his fingers upon the table for a moment before continuing to say, “I know from speaking to her that you Tok'ra require a potential host and symbiote to agree before a either are allowed to blend. My consent is with limitations. I will return her to you as soon as I free my people from enslavement.”

“That is not how the Tok'ra--” Malek angrily began.

“And yet she told me that she initially had plans to stay here and continue to fight with her queen, Egeria.” Apollo interrupted. “She planned to use my body as a vessel, much like Ba'al was hoping to do the same.” The Atanik paused for a moment to collect his thoughts before saying, “Your symbiote would have acted much like the system lords she claims to fight against. In fact, she would have acted much in the same ruthless manner your previous symbiote would have--”

“Don't you dare!” Aldwin growled, white-hot anger overtaking him. He would not let this Atanik sully Leto's name or further besmirch her actions taken in his reality. “Don't--”

“Do not presume that I speak ill of your symbiotes, _human_ ,” Apollo fired back with equal intensity. “You may mistaken my hatred for the Goa'uld as just blindness, but do not presume that I do not know of them! I may not be fond of this arrangement, but my people have not traversed from one dimension to another without accepting the results of decisions upon different decisions that cause ripples. You have carried two defectors, therefore you have more of an intimate knowledge of just what the Goa'uld can do. You will need that buried knowledge and more if you and your allies want to survive the war against the Ori in your galaxy!”

Stunned but still quite incensed at the Atanik, Aldwin clenched his jaw for a moment, trying to think of something to respond to such a statement. He could clearly see the Atanik now, the blurriness in his eyes gone, but at the moment Apollo was unreadable. He was, unfortunately, still at a total loss of words.

It was the Atanik who broke the silence as he continued to say in a calmer tone, “The agreement that your symbiote and I made was for her to help me maintain the facade of me being Ra until my people are freed. In turn, I am giving her everything about my people, the ones you call Furlings. I know not the state of your galaxy, but if you are indeed allied with the Tau'ri, you will also need to ally yourselves with the Furlings. They will be harder to convince than I, but they are the only ones who can help you and the Tau'ri with the Ori scourge.”

“How?” Malek asked, as Aldwin glanced up to see him leaning back against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, staring at Apollo with quite a bit of hostility in his eyes.

He returned his attention to the Atanik as Apollo said, “Asteria will be able to explain it--”

“No,” Malek interrupted. “How? How are you going to free your people? How long will that take?”

“I just received word from a contingent of Ra's Jaffa. They are three days out in bringing the last of my people back from the outskirts. After that, it is only a matter of ensuring that my people are cured of their addiction to nish'ta,” Apollo answered, getting up from where he had been sitting and walking to the entrance to room. The Atanik turned back just as the entrance slid open, saying, “When that happens, that is when I shall return Asteria. Until then, we all have much to do in preparation for the assault on Tau'ri, since it will be imperative in getting all of you back to your dimension, and to possibly save this galaxy.”

A relative silence enveloped the room as soon as Apollo left. While Aldwin was still reeling from the revelations, there was a strange, mixed feeling growing within him, that he could not yet pinpoint. However, he knew that it was not limited to what his symbiote had done. Shoving it to the side, he stared at the closed door for another few moments before saying, “Asteria did the right thing. We need that knowledge.”

“We do,” Malek agreed, though he sounded reluctant about it, “but...”

“You wish it were not through this course of action,” he finished, glancing over for a quick moment to notice that there was worry lining Malek's eyes.

“Yes.”

_You worry too much Malek,_ he thought to himself as he looked down, though he had to remind himself that there would be no symbiote to share his current thoughts. _It used to be Anise and I who worried whenever you, Rosha, and Martouf engaged in reckless behavior. What happened to you?_

 

~*~*~*~

 


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

 

“You look like you just swallowed more than a canary, Dr. Jackson.”

“Huh?” Daniel asked as he blinked and looked up to see Gant stop next to him and take a seat on the dusty stone floor. It had taken quite a considerable influence from the IOA to convince the Egyptian government to allow them to set up a small monitoring base here, never mind that they needed to keep its contents secret. While it would have been wiser to put the 'alt-gate' as everyone was calling it in Antarctica, Daniel was glad that the IOA had the foresight to understand that no one knew what could come through the 'alt-gate'. Hence placing it within a half-buried, but stabilized ruins of a pyramid in the middle of the Egyptian desert. The SG teams would easily be able to collapse and bury the alt-gate under stone and sand, should the worst happen.

There was currently a Tok'ra force field around the alt-gate, but it was still quite active. Nothing had stepped through yet, but for the past two days since Daniel had been here, he had not been studying the gate. Rather, he had been sitting next to it, and reading through the notes about the Ataniks that Freya had written down in her extensive volumes of notebooks. That and also the thick mission report Gant had filed on the years that she had been running with the Tok'ra strike team.

The alt-gate was of some interest, and he still could not figure out how to direct their three wayward Tok'ra back specifically through this one. However, what caught his attention was the brief transmission they had with the alternate-reality Furling named Apollo. Given where the alt-gate was found, along with the natural ATA-gene required to activate it, a Tok'ra birthing queen and her sentinel, and a depleted ZPM that had been powering the force field to protect the ziggurat, Daniel found it all too coincidental. Not to mention that this was the planet where the Atanik bracers had also been found, and then taken apart by a certain Tok'ra with the intent on modifying parts of it to be used with the symbiote poison.

“Yep, you're spacing again, Jackson,” Gant stated.

“Sorry,” he said, scratching the back of his head as he placed one of Freya's notebooks down. “I was just thinking that there are way too many things that are inter-linked with what's happening right now... and that there's one Tok'ra who is at the center of most if it.”

“Diving in to conspiracy theories? I didn't think that that was part of your usual scientific reasoning,” she said.

“No, not conspiracy theories per se, but rather... what the Tok'ra Leto did,” he said. “Or rather, before she decided to through the self-destructive route in life, thinking she had no other choice,” he amended.

“By all accounts, no one really knew her,” the agent said. “They knew her hosts, but they didn't really know her. She rarely took control over her hosts.”

“So I've heard as well,” he murmured. “But her name... and her apparent sac-sibling's name, the sentinel guarding their birthing queen. Leto and Asteria. Grecian in origin, or close to it since its possible they were called derivatives of those names even further back. Hence possibly why Leto told Malek her name was Wadjet. I mean, you stated in your report that both Anise and Selmak had no idea who Leto was. Frankly, we know that Ra and Ba'al were among the oldest of the system lords. Hell, even Anubis most likely didn't have a problem accepting Leto into his ranks, with all things considered.”

“Are you suggesting that they existed before the rise of the system lords?” she asked. “I mean, the SGC encountered a Goa'uld named Cronus. Isn't that pseudo-Grecian as well?”

“I don't know, but this is a slightly wild guess on my part. You read the Atlantis reports – most of the Furlings we encountered had Greek or Roman names. Most of the Ancients we know of had Latin or old Anglo-Saxon names – hell, we know that the Ori have interest in the Arthurian mythos. The Asgards have their roots in Scandinavian mythology. The Goa'uld have mostly Egyptian names with the occasional oddball such as Yu, Amaterasu, or Cronus. But those names also existed in legends of old. Then you have Leto and Asteria. Defectors from the Goa'uld – hunted by Ra and others. Those two names are descended from the Titans, and before that, the primordial deities of Grecian culture.”

“Second-born? Like how the Replicators and Asurans refer to us humans as the favored second-born of the Ancients?”

Daniel shrugged slightly. “We do have the ability to ascend and control whatever they left behind. And we know that Goa'uld do not pick their names lightly – all egotistical and going for the largest impact. Leto and Asteria may have been defectors, but they were Goa'uld first and foremost. What I'm trying to get at is maybe we got this entire thing about the origin of the Goa'uld, and the Tok'ra for the matter, wrong.”

“Jackson, you know you can't just waltz into the Tok'ra homeworld and tell them that all that they've thought about the Goa'uld origins – especially their descent from Egeria – is wrong,” Gant stated.

“Yeah, I know, but hear me out,” he said. “We know that the Great Alliance consisted of the Furlings, Asgard, Nox, and Ancients. We know that almost all of them live in separate galaxies – Nox not withstanding since they're recluses. The Asgard initially created the replicators to help them. The Ancients – us in this galaxy and the Asurans in the Pegasus. The Furlings... I think they may have created the Goa'uld and sent a few here to help the Ancients. I think they're the primordial 'gods' in this case.

“I mean, look at the evidence we have: from what Dr. Weir said about her time in the Furling homeworld, and of the sarcophagus that her people encountered. We thought that the Goa'uld derived, built, or even stole sarcophagus technology from Chak on Earth. But considering what they found in the ziggurat, and in the Pegasus galaxy, we're looking at people who can manipulate or build things as well as the Ancients – maybe even surpass them in terms of crystal technology. I mean, most of the Goa'uld tech is powered by crystal technology. Who among the Tok'ra is considered an expert at crystal tech?”

“Aldwin... or rather, Leto,” she answered. “But they have a team of their own people who build those tunneling crystals--”

“Ah, precisely,” he said, nodding. “They also perfected the Tollan symbiote extractor device. Back when we executed Ba'al, Tanith, and Leto, I asked Garshaw who had perfected the extraction device. She told me that Aldwin was the one to work on it the most. He was also the one who took Anise's research on the Atanik bracer and used a derivative to build the components needed to separate the two parts of the symbiote poison. We know that the Tok'ra have long sought for a way to make the sarcophagus beneficial to everyone without the detrimental effects, but they never did get around to that, due to Anubis, Ba'al, and those pesky Kull soldiers.”

His tone became a little more bitter as he continued to say, “Lo and behold, we find a sarcophagus in the Pegasus galaxy, owned and operated by the Furlings... and then the same kind here, within the ziggurat. Tell me that isn't coincidence. Tell me that there is a good chance that the Furlings created the Goa'uld, and that Leto and Asteria may be among the first.”

He fell silent and glanced over to see that Gant had a pensive look upon her face. “If I didn't know what you knew and heard of the stories about Pegasus from my sister, I'd say you were reaching there, Jackson,” she said after a moment. “For a race that probably help the Ancients build the stargates, most likely perfected the ones in Pegasus, has the same kind of dual-nomenclature as the Tok'ra with their host-symbiote thing, allied themselves with equally powerful races, and sat back to enjoy the shit show that was the Wraith... yeah... it's not too much of a stretch.”

“The problem is, a memory-recall device can only get you so far,” he said, looking down and picking up the notebook again. “We'd need a Harcesis to see if the theory is true. Or ask a Furling.”

“So we keep this to ourselves until we can get the Furlings to the table and see if they're willing to spill the beans about the Goa'uld?” Gant asked. “Why would they even want to do that?”

“I don't know, but it would tell us a lot about them,” he stated. “I mean, it took me ascending, descending, and then half-ascending again to figure out that the Ancients were benevolent assholes with a strict non-interference clause. If my theory holds true, then the Furlings are no better than the Ancients.”

“So you think this summit is a bust?” she asked.

“Well before it began,” he muttered mostly to himself. In a louder tone, he said, “Even though the Furlings' message to us is a bit cryptic, they might not be all that bad though. I think we have a chance, but we're going into this summit blind. We're considered all second-born, no matter what. It's kind of like a child asking its parents for help in dealing with life.”

“Except we're all dying in droves because our 'parents' sat back and let the Ori, Goa'uld, Wraith, Asurans, Replicators, and other terrible things wreck the galaxies before they upped and left,” Gant said, her tone quite bitter. “But,” she said after a moment, clapping her hands together, with her tone brighter and more cheerful, “first things first: we get our three Tok'ra back. And also, Jackson, remind me to go give Thor, Hermiod, or any other Asgard I see next time a hug. Out of those of the Great Alliance, they're the only ones that seem to care whether or not we survive.”

“Dr. Jackson?” Major Mendez of SG-2 spoke up as her footsteps stopped behind him and Gant. “General Landry is requesting both you and Agent Gant to return to base. SG-10 has found five more artifacts similar to the one here on one of the Atanik colonies – all inactive.”

“Five?” Gant asked, standing up with a worried look upon her face. “That's a lot in one place.”

“It was in a similar ziggurat, ma'am,” Mendez answered. “The only difference was that there was no force field protecting it, and the place looked like it had been long looted. There's been no sign of any Ori activity near the sector thus far.”

Daniel sighed, but got up, taking the notebooks with him. With the active one, all he could do was study the sensor readings and compare what notes Anise and her team had taken down before she had disappeared. And with the notes and what they knew thus far – these devices were far more advanced than the Quantum Mirror they had encountered years ago. These things made the Quantum Mirror look like child's play. There were at least five artifacts in a remote planet that hopefully, would give them more clues as to how the devices worked. And with luck, would possibly give them some clue as to how to make sure that the three Tok'ra returned here.

~◊~

_Alternate reality..._

 

It was rather elegant, in Malek's opinion, of the way that Apollo had staged the coup that freed his fellow Ataniks from nish'ta. It was bloody and certainly designed to give anyone who dared trespass the domain of the Ataniks some pause – only if they deigned to not burn the dismembered bodies of Ra's Jaffa. The Jaffa had brought all the Ataniks, twenty in total, not including Apollo, back from all over the planet, for they had been among those guarding the base whenever their system lord was not present.

In the main facility, Apollo had raised a metal grated platform and ordered the Jaffa to herd the Ataniks onto the platform. High amounts of voltages had been wired to channel through the platform, and though both Freya and Martouf expressed some concern about the fact that the voltage could kill all of the Ataniks, Apollo had stated that this was the quickest way to rid his people of their addiction to nish'ta. The voltage required was much more than just a normal single shot from a zat'nik'tel, due to the difference between Atanik and human physiology.

The Jaffa had thought that the wired grating was an execution pad. How wrong they had been, when all twenty Ataniks had been electrocuted and freed from their fog of serving. All twenty had immediately slaughtered any Jaffa they saw, but to ensure that Malek and the others were not among those with symbiotes killed, Apollo had locked himself and them in a room until the killing was over. For nearly twelve constant hours, all any of them heard were the dying screams of the Jaffa and the sounds of flesh being torn by razor-sharp claws.

Unfortunately, those sounds had also caused Anise to completely lock down her host's body and essentially sit unmoving and in a corner until the sounds stopped. It was because Freya's memories of a more traumatizing time in her life had threatened to overwhelm both host and symbiote. Both Malek and Aldwin had been ready to sit with her for those agonizing hours, but surprisingly, it had been Jolinar who had immediately comforted and held Anise until it was done. Little was said between all of them during those long hours – with the only other significant thing happening being Aldwin receiving Asteria back.

Malek could not help but worriedly glance over at Aldwin before returning his attention to Apollo. Since waking up, Aldwin had been more quiet than usual, and he could tell that it was not just from absorbing the memories and knowledge that Asteria had acquired while partially blended with Apollo – this had been happening since they had been rescued by Leto. He felt as if Aldwin was withdrawing, drifting further and further away from both him and Freya – as if he had to fight some invisible enemy on his own. Malek didn't know what to do to try to bring him back, and neither did his host.

Knowing that there was nothing he could do, short of privately talking with Aldwin, in which there was little time to even consider doing, he refocused his attention on the present. Perhaps when they returned to their dimension, perhaps then, he would have a private conversation with Aldwin to find out what was wrong. Neither he nor his host wanted to lose Aldwin to melancholy or worse.

With the death of the last of Ra's Jaffa, Apollo had sent a system-wide communique to the other Ataniks, wanting to speak to them and brief them on what was happening. That was where he and the others were headed now, following Apollo to the meeting point, which was not on the surface of the main facility. Instead, they were headed down a series of tunnels, one of which apparently housed a room with transport rings. They heard the activation of the rings and moments later, the footsteps of Leto echoed down the hall.

She joined them, walking quite briskly with a no-nonsense look about her, but there was a second pair of footsteps that none of them expected. Malek's zat'nik'tel was not even two-thirds out of his holster, when Jolinar, the quickest of them in drawing weapons, had already drawn and activated hers. “What is the meaning of this, Leto?” she demanded, pointing her weapon at Ba'al, who was following Leto unchained and not muzzled.

“I have seen the light,” Ba'al answered in a very sarcastic tone.

“He has agreed to fight with us, for now,” Leto followed up, looking slightly annoyed. “You have no reason to fear his betrayal. Before he woke up, I implanted a small capsule of poison within him that can kill the symbiote, if triggered.”

There was a long moment of silence before Aldwin was the first one to withdraw and holster his zat'nik'tel. “I believe her,” he simply said.

Whether it was because they had shared a symbiote or there was some strange cat-like sense that Malek didn't know if Ataniks possessed, Apollo immediately retracted his partially transformed claws back into human-like hands. Anise, being the most trusting of the Atanik, followed suit and returned control over to Freya. He caught Aldwin's glance over at him – eyes silently saying to trust him in this matter. He took a mental deep breath and retracted his weapon. Soon, Jolinar and Martouf followed his actions.

There were no other pleasantries exchanged, and Apollo continued onwards, leading them further and further into the tunnels. The Atanik had briefly explained that the coordinates he had input into Leto's navigational systems had been a series of random jumps that would eventually bring them to this planet. It was designed to throw any pursing enemies off – to buy them more time to prepare. Malek could not tell from the rather neutral look that Leto had given Apollo, whether or not she had found it beneficial or quite annoying.

They reached the end of the hall that opened up into what looked like a conventional cargo elevator. For all of the technological marvels they had, Malek could hear his host laugh in their shared space at such an absurd thing – the first time in a very long time that he felt his host feel genuinely relax for one moment. He shared in that mental laughter as Apollo closed the metal door and hit the button to get the device to start clanking.

“I find it highly doubtful that we shall prevail against Anubis using this type of technology,” Ba'al muttered just loud enough for all of them to hear.

It was only because he happened to be standing next to Apollo that Malek saw the Atanik's lips twitch up in a mirthless smile. Somehow, his host found that even more amusing, though there was a slight bitterness to his host's mental laughter within their shared space. Keeping his expression schooled to a neutral look, their ride down to the lowest levels of the facility didn't take as long as he feared it to be.

However, as Apollo opened the door, Malek heard him say, “Allow me to go first and explain the situation to my brethren. Only when I tell you to, should you approach.”

The Atanik then stepped out and approached a heavy-looking door that was at the end of the hall. Malek saw him place a hand upon an unseen panel at the door before it slid open just wide enough for one person to step through. After Apollo stepped through, the door slid close, enveloping all of them in a tomb of silence.

They all nervously waited, though Ba'al was the only one to mutter some words of impatience, only to have several pairs of eyes glare at him, Malek included. Finally, after what felt like forever, the heavy doors cracked open and they heard Apollo state, “Please approach.”

Out of the corner of his eyes, Malek saw Aldwin take a step forward, and immediately reacted by stepping off the mechanical elevator first. He was not about to allow his friend to cross the threshold first – especially not with the knowledge that both Asteria and Aldwin were carrying. Their dimension needed the knowledge that Apollo had given them, and thus both Aldwin and Asteria needed to be kept alive at all cost.

His faster and longer gait carried him past the heavy doors and into a strange-looking hangar bay. Twenty human-looking Ataniks were standing near the center of the bay, with the strangest of weapons that looked like what his host thought was water pistols rather than actual guns, pointed at the entrance. Apollo was standing near the group, but apart from the clear threat, something else had caught Malek and his host's attention.

The strange, oblong things that lined the hangar. There were eleven of these things that looked like they could fit through a chappa'ai. It looked more like someone had taken some hollowed cylindrical shell and chopped it into pieces – looking more like an enlarged Tau'ri food called ziti – except able to most likely fit people within.

But, to the immediate threat at hand – the Ataniks held their weapon steady at all of them as Malek heard the others enter into the hangar bay. He kept his eyes on Apollo, who stood to the side and showed no sign of even transforming back to his cat-like form. There was no weapon upon the Atanik though, but that did not bring any comfort to him.

When they had all arrived, the heavy doors closed and it was then that one of the Ataniks with grey hair that did not seem to present as a natural aging color spoke up, asking, “Who are the three travelers, Arileon?”

Malek saw Apollo gesture slightly for the three of them to step forward. Though the Ataniks had not lowered their weapons yet, he decided to place a small modicum of trust in Apollo. He along with Freya and Aldwin stepped forward. In response, the Atanik who had asked for them to be identified holstered his weapon and approached while retrieving what looked to be a datapad of sorts that was clipped onto his waist along the skin-tight pocket on his armored bodysuit.

“Which one did you pass knowledge of our people to, Arileon?” the same Atanik asked as he held up the object, looking between the three of them.

“Him, Lelantos,” Apollo answered, gesturing to Aldwin. “The host had carried Leto and now carries Asteria. I thought it appropriate.”

Malek frowned slightly at the statement before glancing over towards Freya to see that she had a furrowed look upon her face – as if she were trying to puzzle out what Apollo had just said. However, he returned his attention to the Atanik who had stepped up and panned the object up and down Aldwin. “Fascinating,” the Atanik said, stepping back, consulting the collected data. “So it is true – they have arrived from another dimension. The frequency in this host and his symbiote transmit are just slightly different enough on a sub-atomic level. How did they arrive here?”

“I and the symbiote I shared my knowledge with do not know,” Apollo stated. “However, you all know as well as I do what is required to activate those transports. Given that I may be alive in their home reality, I cannot activate the device and go through with them. One of you will have to go and return, since it seems that us Ataniks have been rendered extinct in their galaxy.”

“Except for you, it seems, Arileon,” another Atanik, a black-haired woman, said, almost seemingly smirking.

“So it seems,” Apollo answered in a mild tone.

“Pardon my interruption,” Freya spoke up, taking a half-step forward, “but would you please clarify what you mean by how we arrived here and how we will return? I thought that you stated that what we call Ancients or those direct descendants such as yourselves, can only activate the device, Apollo.”

“Yes, that is true,” the Atanik said, inclining his head slightly. “Our fore bearers built the device specifically to ensure that only those with certain encoded genetic structure can activate it, since going through the devices creates an immense moral responsibility than traveling through the chappa'ai. Only a few of us Ataniks were ever gifted with the genetic structure – passed on specifically by our fore bearers and taught of the moral responsibility. In our human forms, we can only operate the devices because the specific genetic structure is more prominent – just as we can operate certain items that Anubis can as well. Being that he has knowledge of our fore bearers, the Ancients, but not the correct genetic structure, he cannot activate any of the devices.”

“I'm sorry, devices?” Aldwin asked. “Just how many are currently connected to here, and are they all on Tau'ri?”

“You did not think that your dimension was the only one connected, did you?” the same black-haired Atanik woman asked, though it sounded more like a statement than question. “What an absurd thought.”

Aldwin remained silent, though Malek could see that he was a resentful in being spoken to in such a belittling tone. It was Apollo who broke the slight tension, saying, “Are we in agreement, everyone?”

There were nods from all the Ataniks as they sheathed their weapons, though the most enthusiastic agreement came from the Atanik named Lelantos who said, “I wish they would remain here a little longer... or that you sought to come here earlier, Arileon. I would have loved to study and find out just how these travelers arrived without the specific genetic structure to activate the devices.”

Malek found himself blinking in mild distaste as he felt his host's displeasure at being subjected to 'experimentation' fill their shared space. However, that was short-lived as Apollo said, “Then let us brief them on the battle plan. We will determine later who shall go with them to activate their device and send them home, but for now, I shall take the three of them... yes, you can attend the briefing with us, Lelantos.”

“As you command, Arileon,” the Ataniks stated at the same time.

As the other Ataniks streamed past them, Malek saw Apollo gesture for them to follow him and the apparent scientist of the group that the Atanik commanded. “Arileon,” he stated to Apollo, curious. “What does that mean? Is it a rank of sorts?”

“It is a middling rank within the Agentus,” the Atanik stated, leading them towards one of the strange-looking ships. “I was second-in-command to the one whom Ra had taken as host. I was responsible for deploying teams, including myself at times, to gather intelligence about the situation in this galaxy. The Lanteans and those you call Furlings, were curious as to what their allies were doing in this galaxy, and why they had gone silent.”

As they stepped up into the ramp of the ship, Malek could hear the quiet conversation between Freya and Lelantos, though it seemed to lean more towards Freya's insatiable curiosity about the strange datapad than anything else. He saw Apollo gesture for them to go forward through what looked like a small cargo hold. Beyond that was the cockpit, and at least four chairs for passengers and the pilot to sit at. It was slightly crowded, especially with the various strange-looking items that littered the floor and sides of the cargo hold as Apollo stopped at the left corner the bulkhead between the cargo hold and cockpit.

Aldwin silently wove his way through and stood just beyond the bulkhead, turning slightly back to listen to the briefing. Malek followed, but he was more fascinated at just how chiseled and crystal-like the cockpit looked. There were two stick-like objects on the left side of the cockpit at the front most seat that he could only assume was the pilot's chair. In the center was a slightly raised area that had flat crystals that were etched with the symbols corresponding to the symbols on the chappa'ai.

“This ship,” Apollo began as Malek slipped into the right front-most seat at the urging of his host, who was utterly fascinated by the simple yet elegant design of the cockpit. “Is able to fit and fly through the chappa'ai. They are of Lantean design and were kept under certain biological lock and key to prevent Ra or Anubis from obtaining them once we knew that we were to be enslaved.”

“We will be attacking Tau'ri with these then?” Aldwin asked before Malek could jump in with the same question.

“Yes. We have to assume that Egeria has already told Anubis of your origins. The area on Tau'ri where the transports are kept will most likely be heavily guarded. We will also use this opportunity to strike and get help from our Lantean brethren. The chappa'ai on Tau'ri is the only link to the Lantean base.”

“Do the ships still posses the missiles?”

Malek blinked in surprise, but realized that he really should not be surprised at just how precise Aldwin's questions were, with regards to the ship and its capabilities. After all, Asteria had absorbed knowledge of the Furlings from Apollo and thus would have an idea of what the ship could and could not do. Deciding that it was better for him to be at least somewhat familiar with the specifications of the ship, he spun around in the chair so that he was facing the cockpit panel. When it came to flying and fighting above the skies of Tau'ri, then he would not be woefully unable to help – he refused to be a burden.

“Yes, but the ship is limited in carrying capacity, though--” he heard Apollo say as he looked around and brushed his hands across the panels, trying to find a compartment of sorts that would have a datapad or at least give him a projection---

_**That's interesting** ,_ he heard his host state as a holographic projection with several pages of files was suddenly displayed across the cockpit window. Unfortunately, from what little he knew, it was written entirely in Ancient.

He turned back, only to find that both Apollo and Lelantos were staring at him from the threshold between the cockpit and cargo hold. Freya was peeking in behind Lelantos, looking a bit worried. Neither Atanik looked happy, but neither did they look angry. “Have I done something--” he began, standing up.

“Where does your host hail from, Malek?” Apollo suddenly demanded.

Malek glanced over at Aldwin for a moment before returning his attention to the Atanik, saying, “I thought you would have already known, considering that you blended with Asteria.”

“Contrary to your woeful knowledge and assumption about host and symbiote blending, no. I do not,” Apollo answered in a prickly tone. “I shall ask, _kindly_ , one last time. Where does your host hail from?”

“Stop it, please,” Aldwin immediately jumped in, extending a hand out towards him, a gesture to tell him to remain silent just as he was about to protest. Malek saw him turn and face both Ataniks, saying, “This is not relevant to your battle plan.”

“I disagree,” Apollo answered, narrowing his eyes slightly. “There is relevance to not knowing that it was one of you who activated the transport. Especially since your symbiote knowingly _lied_ to me.”

_**Malek, it is all right,**_ his host suddenly said, just as he was going to intervene again. _**It is all right. Aldwin and Asteria kept the knowledge from Apollo. They had both kept me safe, and while I am grateful, I think that in this instance... keeping where I am from may be detrimental to getting home. Maybe they know something of Earth and of its people... and if I am correct, it is me who activated the device that brought all of us here.**_

_**Are you sure?**_ he asked as he peered into the theory that his host had compiled and shared in their mindscape.

With a mental nod of absolute affirmation from his host, he yielded control. He watched as his host placed a hand on Aldwin's outstretched arm. He saw Aldwin glance back at them before his eyes widened in surprise – most likely from the fact that Alexei was in control, and had different mannerisms than he did. He felt his host shake their head. Hesitation was written all over Aldwin's face, but Alexei silently insisted that he answer Apollo's question by taking a step forward.

“Hello,” he heard his host say in his natural, heavily accented voice, spreading their arms out slightly in an open gesture that he hoped would not constitute as a threatening one. “I am Dr. Alexei Nikolayevich Tereshkov of the Tau'ri.”

 

~*~*~*~

 


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

 

Freya sighed as she snapped the cover of her datapad closed. Due to her lack of the specific and unique genetic sequence needed to use the various Lantean items that the Ataniks had traveled from their home galaxy to this one, she had to ask the Ataniks to take apart one of their datapad so that she could cannibalize it to configure her own. Malek and Aldwin certainly did not know how to read Ancient as fluently as she did, which was needed to ensure that they chose the correct transport device to return to their home dimension. She also did not want to put the burden on Aldwin to dive into the massive amount of extra memories that Asteria had acquired, at the moment. He seemed a lot more withdrawn since receiving Asteria back, and that worried her, since it was clear that he was still dealing with the death of his previous symbiote. Being here and working with this dimension's Leto certainly was not helping him.

Her symbiote sleepily prodded her in their shared space to stop worrying before returning to rest. She acknowledged it, but she could not help herself. The longer they stayed here, the more she watched her friends tear themselves apart to try to fix what was inherently wrong and could not be fixed with this dimension. It was just how they were, especially after what they had been through in the past few years. All she could do was watch them, for she neither had their convictions or experiences, and catch them if they fell.

“Have you finished integrating the sensors into your datapad, Freya?”

She looked up from where she sat to see Lelantos kindly smiling down at her, hands folded together in an unassuming fashion. “Yes,” she answered, gesturing for the Atanik to sit down next to her. “It has been calibrated and configured to the frequency that should resonate with the transport to bring us home.”

“Excellent!” the seemingly lone scientist among this detachment of the Agentus said. “Then it is with the best of luck that I wish upon all of you that you will return home safely and soundly.”

“Though it seems to me that you do wish us to stay a while longer if possible, is it not?” she asked, feeling a bit cheered up at just how optimistic the Atanik sounded. Everyone else around this hangar bay, including Leto's Jaffa, Ba'al, and the others looked dour, serious, and unhappy. Though they all were rightly so to look that way – they were all less than an hour away from launching their attack upon Tau'ri.

“I am that easy to read, am I not?” the Atanik said, ducking his head slightly in embarrassment. “It was a fault of mine, especially since I grew up in the shadow of my elder sisters, and their great accomplishments that benefited Homeworld and our people as a whole.”

Freya puzzled over his words for a moment, for it sounded slightly strange, considering what she knew about Ataniks and what Apollo had told her about their society on Atlantis. “Homeworld? Your people... you are not Atanik?”

“I am not,” Lelantos answered, nodding. “I am what you and the others would consider a pure-blooded Furling... though I am shorter than average for my species' height. I like to say it is because my sisters devoured all of the nutrients in the food when I was growing up and thus did not spare me any.”

“You say pure-blood as if it were a detriment,” she said, somehow managing to keep the shock from her tone. “Apollo spoke of the Ataniks and the Furlings as if he great respect for them.”

A mirthless smile briefly appeared on the Furling's face before he said, “As you may already know, Apollo and the others are a result of unions between what you call the Ancients and Furlings.” She nodded. “Unfortunately, those of the Agentus Lantean detachment have been relatively isolated from the politics that govern the Furlings. Many of our society were vehemently opposed to the alliance between us and the Lanteans – and many more detested the unions between our races. Those born of the unions, such as Apollo, were outcast from our society. However, a few of us managed to convince our governing body to allow the Ataniks to live with the Lanteans – far and away to maintain the facade of the alliance, and also not be a stain upon the Furlings.”

“And what is your role in this, Lelantos?” she asked, glancing over from where she was sitting to briefly watch Apollo teach Malek and Alexei how to utilize the unique genetic structure that Alexei had apparently been gifted with, weapons wise. Ever since Alexei had revealed himself and his homeworld origin, it seemed that a change had overcome Apollo and he had seemingly taken Malek and his host under his wing for the brief hours they would be remain in this dimension. She had not had a chance to talk to Malek since the revelation, but it seemed that the Ataniks held the Tau'ri in high regards.

“I opposed the exile, but I did not have the political power that my sisters wielded to fight such discrimination. So I went with them,” Lelantos answered, drawing her attention back to him.

“Is it wise to continue letting all of them live in ignorance?” she asked. It was not her place to question what was right or wrong, for she was a scientist first and foremost, and sought the facts through logic. With regards to the Ataniks and Furlings, she could not allow her emotions to cloud her judgment – they had already been clouded too much with her friends, along with Martouf, Jolinar, and Leto.

“For now, yes,” Lelantos said, nodding. “At least when we establish contact with Atlantis, we will be able to gather enough forces with the Lanteans to return to this galaxy to cleanse it. The Furlings certainly will not respond as a whole to help and will most likely try to prevent those who have Atanik progeny to help. After that...”

“But I do not understand,” she said, furrowing her brows in concern, “You stated that your sisters have the political power to influence decisions and the like. Why did they not help you?”

“That is a very human way of thinking, Freya,” the Furling stated, unfolding his hands and placing his left on top of her own that were still grasping the datapad. “And I do not fault your kind for thinking in such terms. It is expected since you are all considered the second born of your Ancients, and they had similar thought patterns. It was one of the many things that made the alliance between the Ancients and Furlings unstable – neither could reconcile how one processed thoughts and rationale from various situations.”

Freya frowned – there seemed to be something that the Furling was not telling her, but she did not get a chance to further clarify when footsteps approached and the familiar voice of Martouf said, “Is the Atanik bothering you or your work, Freya?”

“No,” she said, as Lelantos lifted up his hand and stood up, giving both of them a kind smile and nod. The Furling left without another word. Freya watched Martouf keep an eye on the Furling until Lelantos disappeared into one of the eleven ships they had, most likely going to help his fellow shape-shifters with something. “Martouf, I appreciate what you are doing, but rest assured, I am capable of protecting myself.”

She hoped that she would not have to further explain herself or reiterate what she had told both Malek and Aldwin all those years ago when she had suggested that Tanith be kept within the ranks of the Tok'ra. That had been both annoying and slightly patronizing, even though she knew that her friends had only the best of intentions with their actions.

“There something unsettling about that Atanik,” Martouf stated. “Neither Lantash or I can pinpoint it, but whenever I am around that Atanik, both of us feel uneasy.”

“Do the others share your opinion?” she asked, standing up and clipping the modified datapad to her waist belt.

“At the moment, no, but it could just be from both my symibote and my unease in how easily the Ataniks have accepted us,” he answered. “However, I must confess that my mate has been complaining quite a bit since finding out that Malek's host is capable of wielding the same weapons as the Ataniks. She is jealous.”

Freya could not help but smile slightly at the statement. In their home dimension, when Malek's previous host, Lysana, had been still alive, there had been a very competitive streak between Lysana and Rosha in just how disruptive and destructive they could be when they had been fighting the system lords. It heartened her to see that here, though now, neither Jolinar nor her host could possibly compete with Alexei and his unique genetic structure.

“I cannot speak for Malek or his host,” she said, “but I can say that it has been both a blessing and curse among the Tau'ri. We face two overwhelmingly powerful enemies on many fronts that were partially caused by this special genetic structure that they possess. Had Malek's host not have had this ability, then perhaps we would have not gotten into this mess.”

“But then we would have never known that Egeria was turned,” he answered. “And this war would have never ended. Now, we have a chance to end it once and for all, and live in peace.”

She silently nodded, accepting the facts for what they were before Martouf silently gestured for them to go to the mechanical lift to help with the loading of various items that the Ataniks and the Jaffa that would be riding in the cargo hold on the chappai'ai ships, needed. In between Martouf's arrival and Lelantos's departure, it seemed that Apollo had finished instructing Malek in whatever was necessary to operate an Atanik weapon.

Given that they had little time left before the assault began, she was sure that Apollo had not taught Malek how to pilot one of those ships – which she had found out that could only be operated by those possessing the unique genetic structure of the Ancients. Both the Ataniks and Alexei definitely had the genetic structure, given their ancestors, and since Anubis also possessed it, she had been glad that the Ataniks had the foresight to lock and hide such a dangerous fleet of ships away.

They entered the long corridor that led to the mechanical lift, passing by a few Ataniks who were carrying several crates of things that were needed to the ships. They entered the lift and Martouf pressed the button to bring them up to the main facility. As soon as the lift clanked to a stop, they stepped out. Three people were approaching from the end of the hall – Aldwin, Jolinar, and Malek. They were carrying crates as she heard Jolinar call out to them, saying, “These are the last of the supplies. All that is left is for a complement of Leto's Jaffa to be ringed down.”

As if right on cue, they heard the transport rings in another corridor activate. The five of them met up in the center of the corridor, with the footsteps of the Jaffa coming ever closer. Freya could not help but still flinch at the sounds of the Jaffa footsteps, though thankfully, even with Anise half-asleep, she was preventing their natural flight-or-fight reaction from triggering.

Six Jaffa, two of them on tretonin and the other four with symbiotes, appeared in the main corridor, though surprisingly, Leto was accompanying them. With a curt “Jaffa, kree!” order, the six Jaffa plucked the crates from them and proceeded down the corridor, leaving them along with Leto. “This was not a farewell that I thought I would ever see,” Leto said, breaking the silence after the mechanical lift started to descend.

“No,” Aldwin agreed, “though this is also a battle that none of us would have ever thought to engage in.”

“Then may fortune favor us all,” Martouf stated. “And of this alliance that we have forged. Safe journeys home, friends.” Freya saw him nod at all of them before Jolinar silently followed suit and followed him down the corridor and to the mechanical lift to call it back up.

With just the three of them now facing Leto, she heard the rebel system lord say, “Thank you, for everything that you have done. What has happened will be something I will never forget. This war that we thought was without end now has one. If, in the future, I am still alive and there is a way that I am able to send help to your dimension, I will.”

“Leto,” Aldwin spoke up, taking Leto's hands into his own. “You've done more than enough. Just promise all of us to live.”

There was an understanding look, and something else that that Freya could not quite read pass across Leto's eyes before she silently nodded. Aldwin let go of her hands, and she stepped to the side. Aldwin was the first to leave as Freya also took up Leto's hands and briefly squeezed them in reassurance and in silent thanks. She then let go and followed Aldwin.

As both she and Aldwin approached the mechanical lift that had been held by Martouf and Jolinar, she realized that Malek had not followed them. Pausing near the entrance, she glanced back to see that Leto and Malek were engaged in a quiet conversation. She saw Malek nod once and step away before Leto suddenly stepped back in and did something that neither she nor the others expected.

The rebel Goa'uld kissed Malek.

It was brief, but it was also incredibly bittersweet, considering that Freya saw her pull away not a moment later and spun around to walk back to the ring transport, leaving Malek standing as still as a statue in the corridor. Leto's footsteps echoed through the corridors until the sounds of the ring transport were activated. In the silence that followed, Freya almost ran back to Malek, fearing that the open and very public display of affection might have been a cover for something more sinister. Except that Malek seemed to snap out of his surprised fugue and turned to walk towards them.

“Are you...?” she began just as Malek caught up with them.

“I do not know,” he answered, looking slightly confused as they stepped into the mechanical lift, “though I think in time, I will be...”

~◊~

Aldwin sat in the rather comfortable chair, absently fiddling with the deactivated zat'nik'tel in his hands and occasionally glancing up to see that the chappa'ai was still inactive. They and the other chappa'ai ship were sitting here, waiting for the signal to come in from Tau'ri of a successful strike by Leto and what was left of her forces. The other nine ships had been squirreled away on Leto's ship and would be the troop transport and air support needed to punch a hole in the defenses that Anubis had set up.

He looked up again through the cockpit window; it was a rather beautiful-looking chappa'ai, elegant and polished in appearance – and that was his opinion even before he had reblended with Asteria. However, since their reblend, the memories and knowledge that he had acquired from her troubled him greatly. She was doing her best to mitigate the flood, but that was the least of his concerns. Foremost of those thoughts had been the defense capabilities that Tau'ri possessed, even before Anubis had successfully taken it over. There had been a weapons platform on the southern pole of the planet, but that had been completely drained by the Ra and his swayed Ataniks before they had fled.

Then came the thoughts about the defenses around the chappa'ai and the shield that was similar to this one that guarded this planet's chappa'ai. That was one of the primary reasons why Leto's ship was so important – they had to disable it to shield on the chappa'ai in order to dial out to the Lantean base. Then there was the power source needed to dial to another galaxy, and it required the same type of crystal power source that had kept the shield active back in their dimension where Hecate had been hidden. That power source was at the southern pole.

Once the shield was deactivated, then they would dial in from this planet, establish a communication link back to a device already set up here to keep the wormhole active until the power source could be retrieved. The six Jaffa that Leto left in the care of the second ship that was waiting beside them would be the ones to guard the gate. Once the power source was integrated, the chappa'ai would be dialed to the other galaxy, and the Ataniks would go through and send for help.

That was the plan, but Aldwin and his symbiote knew from experience that everything never went according to 'the plan'.

He was, however, greatly troubled by what little additional information he was learning about the Ataniks and Furlings in general as his symbiote slowly processed the information that Apollo had given her. One of which was their general attitude towards not just Goa'uld, but symbiotes in general. Apollo did not seem to care for the philosophical differences between the Tok'ra and the Goa'uld, thinking that was trivial. His compatriots thought even worse of symbiotes in general, now that he was adept at reading the tiny visual cues that the Ataniks gave to each other even in human form.

There was also the matter of what he could discern about the history of this dimension: it seemed that Anubis's rise to power had not been accidental at all. Try as he and his symbiote might, it was hard for both of them to peer through the fog of foreign memories to recall anything else before that small sliver of information.

He would need a memory-recall device and at least two full days of meditating to possibly dive deeper than twenty-three centuries of memories – in addition to their own blended memories. Leto's memories of Anubis's rise in their home dimension was fuzzy at best, and in order to cross-correlate both this dimension and home to see if the commonalities were the same, even more time would have to be spent with the memory-recall device.

It was also a very risky thing to do, for at the length of time and the depth of memories he was trying to retrieve, aneurysms could possibly develop that his symbiote could not prevent. Now though, he would not have done it at the moment – at least not in front of Malek or Freya. He did not want to worry his friends ever further. Thus he was only left with impressions of the past, and of the knowledge of Ataniks and Furlings in general that Asteria was able to siphon from the well.

“I have never seen you so fascinated by a manual of a ship, Malek,” Anise spoke up from her seat, which was directly behind the pilot's chair that Apollo occupied. Malek was sitting in the co-pilot's chair, with Anise's datapad interfaced into the cockpit. Aldwin looked up again and peered out from where he was sitting, behind the co-pilot's chair. He could feel his symbiote's mild curiosity grow at the roughly translated holographic interface that was upon the screen in front of Malek.

However, none of them got to say anything else when a loud ping and static through the Atanik long-range communicator on the ship sounded. The manual that Malek had been reading immediately died and faded from the screen. He saw him yank the datapad from the interface and hand it back to Anise. “The shield is down!” a tinny voice that sounded slightly like Lelantos said over the connection.

The ship lurched as he saw Apollo quickly punch in the unfamiliar sequence of symbols to connect to Tau'ri. The familiar _ka-woosh_ of the chappa'ai lit up the clearing and not a few moments later, he heard the Atanik say over the communicator, “Link established, estimated time?”

“Unknown, Arileon,” a female Atanik's voice answered, this time less tinny, but more strained. “We are holding position, but there has been no contact from the southern team. Sending current feed.”

A small feed popped up on the lower half of the cockpit window, showing an overhead view of what was around the chappa'ai. There was a small cluster of circular dots near the chappa'ai, while square dots seemed to be approaching from all around, though some were winking out. “Polydeuces, fly west and hit the obelisk and surrounding areas near the Tomb of Kings. Then drop your payload at the chappa'ai,” Apollo ordered. “I'll take the east and those on the platforms, drop the travelers off, and then join you.”

“As ordered,” the Atanik pilot in the second ship next to them crisply answered. Aldwin saw the pilot fly the first of the two ships into the wormhole.

Not a second later, Apollo rocketed them towards the wormhole. They were ejected rather forcefully and violently into the chaotic skies that were full of gold and blue streaks of blasts. Multiple explosions impacted against their ship as he barely heard over the noise, a mechanical-like noise that his symbiote identified as the expansion of the missile pods that the ship carried. Two glowing orbs of light shot forth from their ship as Apollo steeply banked the ship to avoid more fire.

As they seemingly dove and weaved around the tiny lances of enemy weapons fire, he saw enemy Jaffa dive for cover just moments before the glowing orbs smashed into the ground and exploded. Blackened rubble covered the area they were flying across as Apollo fired off another volley towards a watchtower-like area. However, they quickly banked away from the scene and settled into a courtyard-like area.

The ground shook with the impacts of the various ships' missiles impacting structures all around them, as he and the others scrambled up from their seats, weapons out and ready. The ramp to the cargo area of the tiny ship started to open, letting in the hot, dry air of a desert climate in, along with the cacophony of a battle that was raging in the skies and on the ground. Even before the ramp was three-quarters down, Malek had already took the lead, with the strange weapon that apparently only those with the Ancient genetic structure could use, out. Anise followed him, but Aldwin hesitated for a moment and glanced back at the Atanik.

“Thank you, Apollo,” he said, though he wasn't feeling as generous as he had initially had been towards the Atanik and the possibility of a way home. It was only because of what had happened since they had arrived here that that feeling had turned more into frustration. “And... best of luck.”

“May fortune favor all of you,” the Atanik replied in kind, nodding once before turning his attention back to the cockpit.

Aldwin emerged from the belly of the ship and hurried towards the half-destroyed columns that Malek and Anise were hiding behind. Sand dunes, along with familiar structures of pyramids and tombs littered the area, though most looked like they had seen battle damage from long ago and had not even been bothered to be repaired. Scores of black, some fresh, some faded with time from the sun, wind, and heat of the desert, along with crumbling rocks and dried plants grew out of the ruins.

There was no sign of the enemy around, but he didn't dare glance back to see the strange ship lift off from the ground and soar over head to rejoin the fighting. He pushed his worry for Leto, for the other Ataniks, and for if they would win this invasion upon Tau'ri out of his mind. Now was the time to concentrate on their own problems, to get back to their dimension, for they did not belong here.

He reached them and slid into cover, his back against the toppled column, with his zat'nik'tel out and activated. “Which way?” he heard Malek ask as he glanced over to see Anise panned her datapad in the general direction that was ahead of where they were.

“That way,” she answered after a moment, gesturing to Aldwin's right. “There is an entrance near here. No life signs as far as this says. There are a lot of interference from the ships, but once we get into the chamber, we should be able to further pinpoint where the device is.”

Aldwin did not need a verbal command as he immediately got up and quickly, but cautiously ran ahead. Keeping towards the outer columned area, he saw Malek flit in and out of the inner areas of the ruins. Anise was following behind them, but she, like them, was more concerned about an ambush at the moment, rather than what her datapad was indicating. This was Anubis, and they all knew what he was capable of – ascended being or not.

Whether it was his symbiote who heard it first, or the fact that Malek most likely heard it the same time, both of them paused just before they got to the corner of this long sand-stone building. He immediately flattened himself against the nearest column, just as he saw Malek and Anise do the same against the building's walls. The sound of Jaffa footsteps got closer and closer as he peeked out and saw that the purported entrance that Anise had indicated earlier was open. He ducked back into cover, just as the first pairs of footsteps emerged from the entrance.

He estimated that at least four more pairs of feet followed the first two before hearing one of the Jaffa say, “You two, return to Lord Anubis and inform him that the activators are progressing, but there are more chambers than we anticipated. You two, send for a teltac and gather more people from the western continent.”

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Malek silently gesture with a nod of his head sideways. Anise was already anticipating the movement and looked ready to step out. He nodded, and together, the three of them popped out of their hiding places. Lances of blue, and the white bolts of Malek's weapon soared across the air. Only a few golden lances from the Jaffa, fired wildly in reaction to the zat'nik'tels and Atanik weapon hitting them, whizzed by in return. The cleanup after the collapse of the Jaffa, ten in total, was rather quick as he and Malek methodically fired three rapid shots into all ten Jaffa, making them disappear.

They could not leave any evidence, lest a patrol or an enemy ship happened on by and saw the bodies. Without further ado, they picked up all of the staff weapons and brought them inside. As bulky as they were, it was better to use enemy weapons rather than their own for now, since they had no idea what they would encounter within the place.

Down the sand-covered stairs they went, with the arid heat cooling rapidly the further down they descended. However, at the bottom of the steps, they entered a chamber, and Aldwin could feel his symbiote's surprise at what laid before them mix in with his own. Rather than the usual tomb and chamber full of valuables that marked the excess greed of a system lord, there were monoliths upon monoliths decorating the circular chamber – all of them glowing the same color that he remembered the device glowing at. Seven entrances to stairs that looked like they descended further down were also present, and he could only guess that there were many more devices beyond those stairs.

“Well,” he heard Malek say, “this is unexpected. Anise?”

“They are projecting frequencies that are either close to what we need or so far off the spectrum that we can only hear a hum from it. Give me a moment, please,” she answered. He saw her tap a few things on her datapad before saying, “This way.”

With Malek shadowing Anise, Aldwin followed them to the third tunnel from the left, though he did pause for a moment and glanced back towards the entrance to the surface. He wanted to blast the ceiling of the entrance with one of his staff weapons to delay any enemy reinforcements coming in, but he wasn't sure about the stability of the structure. Deciding against that action, he turned and hurried down the stairs to catch up with the others.

The chamber they entered this time looked similar to the one that graced the main antechamber of the Abydos pyramid. Square columns lined the hall, and there were at least two entrances on either side of this long hall that led to further chambers. However, they could not take cover around any of the columns, for each had a device that was already glowing. It was then that he realized what Anubis had done; the system lord must have taken the people of Tau'ri and forced those with the unique genetic structure to activate the devices to try to prevent the them from leaving.

“All of these--” Anise began, before Malek immediately raised a hand to tell her to fall silent for a moment. Aldwin could feel his symbiote strain their hearing, and then he caught it – a tiny sliver of whisper of voices coming from not just one of the additional chambers, but all of them. There were more Jaffa here, and though none of them could discern what was being said, there was no doubt in any of their eyes that they were most likely forcing the Tau'ri people to continue to activate more devices.

He saw Anise silently gesture for them to follow her and as quietly as they could, they proceeded down the center of the chamber, taking care to cross as quickly as they could between columns whenever there was a side entrance present. However, they also made sure that they were not touching or getting too close to the active monoliths – none of them knew what would happen if they touched one of them that was not their own.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, Aldwin could not tell at the moment, the frequency of the device that they were looking for happened to be at the end of the chamber, through another entrance. “It is a dead end chamber,” Anise quietly said as they flattened themselves against the wall on either side of the entrance, for there were no transportation devices along the outer perimeter of the chamber, only around the columns.

“The frequencies in this area all correspond quite close to the one that we are searching for,” she continued, her whisper barely heard by him. Beyond this chamber are the ones that my datapad states are the ones that reflect our dimension, though with different branches based upon the recent decisions and actions taken. We must find the one we left from in there.”

“So they keep on growing and propagating depending on what we do?” Malek asked.

Anise shrugged slightly. “We defeated Anubis, as it seemed that many of the dimensional monoliths here in this main chamber did as well. Except that we are facing the Ori. As best as I can tell, this chamber and its offshoots were designed to house various similarities in the dimensions, and it just happened that most of these here have defeated Anubis. In there are also other dimensions fighting the Ori, including our own.”

“As soon as we start firing into there, the other Jaffa will be coming out of the other chambers,” Malek stated. “Find it as fast as you can, Anise.”

“I have you covered out here,” Aldwin spoke up, as he felt his symbiote flood their shared blood with more naquadah. He withdrew from control and allowed her to take over. Though he had not asked her about her reasons why she kept her conversation with Apollo about the transference of knowledge from him, it was not the time or place to do so. She was clearly a better fighter than him, and reunited with additional knowledge on Jaffa weaknesses and of this place, he knew that she would keep the alive to the best of her abilities.

He watched through their shared eyes, her methodical dual-activation of the staff weapons at the same time he heard Malek and Anise activate their weapons. The two fired their weapons first, surprising the Jaffa within the chamber, and soon, the smell of smoke, burnt flesh, and scorched stone filled the air. A few moments later, Jaffa started to pour out of the other chambers, shouting all sorts of epithets. He felt his symbiote fire simultaneously, shifting slightly into partial cover behind a cluster of glowing monoliths.

Heated stone being blasted off the walls bit at him, but his symbiote completely ignored the pain and merely shunted it aside as she continued to fire their weapons. Smoke rapidly filling up the area made it hard to see, even with their enhanced senses. It was only his symbiote sensing that Malek and Anise had made their way further into the chamber that she started to rise up.

Step by step, as she continued to fire, never letting it up, Aldwin mentally flinched when a couple of shots through the thick smoke near hit them. At the entrance to the chamber, he could hear the battle continue within the chamber and leaned partially against it, keeping their profile as small as possible to not get caught in the crossfire.

He could feel the weight of the staff weapons start to get lighter and lighter with each successive rapid firing that she was unleashing upon the Jaffa to keep them at bay. The sounds of glass breaking was odd, but it was only when the deactivated shards of a couple of monoliths that sprayed towards him that indicated that the wild shots that each side was destroying them. He didn't know the consequences, but he hoped that it was for the better.

The staff weapon that his symbiote was holding in their right hand emptied first. There was too much debris and stray fire to lunge for the other two that were lying near the column he and his symbiote had been seeking shelter against. As he felt her fling it to the side to bring the left one up into a two-handed grip, that was when an excruciatingly bloom of fire and pain bloomed across their right side from waist to leg.

He felt himself rock to the side as his symbiote lost control for a moment, blacking out from the pain as an involuntary cry escaped their lips. However, he had endured this kind of pain before, and he dove back into control of their shared body, the jarring pain that lanced up and down as they hit the debris-covered ground nearly caused him to pass out as well. He was barely aware of someone forcibly dragging them back by the neck of their clothes.

Blinking and blearily trying to wipe away the tears of pain, he saw Malek shout something, but momentarily could not hear him. He did, however, see him press something on the side of the entrance, belatedly realizing that he had been pulled back into the dead-end chamber. Something descended from the ceiling, a door of sorts that glowed the moment Malek willed it.

He tried to get up as he felt his symbiote wake up again, due to the agonizing pain that lanced up and down his right side. “Do not move too much, Aldwin,” he heard Malek say as he saw him remove his hand from the side of the entrance that had closed the door. However, Malek did not even get to take two steps away from the entrance when the door partially rose again.

It was only pure adrenaline, pumped by his symbiote to dull as much of the pain as possible so that she could work on repairing the possibly fatal wound, that gave him the necessary reaction time to draw his zat'nik'tel out and fire several rapid shots at the shin-high gap that had formed. Malek's curse was barely heard by him as he saw several Jaffa and whoever else was out there fell to the ground. Then Malek was by the entrance again, pressing something on the wall that glowed closing the entrance.

“They have a Tau'ri trying to open the door from the other side! I cannot hold the door for long! Anise! Hurry!” he heard Malek urge, and saw the strain appear upon his face.

Aldwin twisted to look towards where Anise was, panning her datapad across several non-destroyed monoliths. Half of those within the chamber were glowing, with a Tau'ri and several Jaffa lying next to one that was inactive. Asking for more numbing properties, Asteria obliged him as he tried to get up, or at least slide himself towards the one that Anise was panning over again – right next to the pile of bodies.

“It is this one!” she exclaimed a few moments later.

He wanted to verify that it was the one, but could not even utter the words as black spots appeared in his vision. He felt Anise's bony shoulder and arms hoist him up and half-drag him towards the monolith. Keeping a firm and tight grip on his zat'nik'tel, he was deposited as gently as possible next to the inactive monolith, though to him and his symbiote, it felt more like they had been thrown onto the floor.

Raising his good arm and side, he pressed his hand against the stone as he heard Anise say, “Malek, come on!”

With unsteady aim, he raise his right arm, trying his best to ignore the pain as he saw Malek glance at them for a moment before letting go of whatever mechanism he had triggered to manually keep the door closed. The entrance lifted up first, ankle-high as soon as Malek had taken two steps towards them. Aldwin fired at the entrance, trying to keep his aim as steady as possible. He could hear Anise do the same.

Four steps, and the entrance was raised to shin-high, with a couple of opportunistic Jaffa crouching and bringing their staff weapons to bear. He tried to target them, but the spots in his vision were becoming a little to large and the pain a little too overwhelming. The last he saw before succumbing to unconsciousness was Malek taking a flying leap towards them, arms and hands outstretched.

~◊~

_Home dimension, Earth..._

 

Calm and controlled excitement filled the decks of the _General Hammond_ as the last preparations for the mission the ship and her crew were to embark upon in a couple of days when the _Daedalus_ would be back from the Pegasus galaxy. Colonel Samantha Carter was sitting in the commander's seat, perusing the latest report that had been uploaded to her tablet while she had been in conference with Generals O'Neill and Landry.

“Ma'am, SG-15 is reporting that the alt-gate is glowing... they're back!” Major Gant, the twin sister of Agent Gant and also her second-in-command, sitting in the seat to the right of her suddenly said. “Injuries to all three of them--”

“Is the alt-gate still glowing?” she demanded.

“Yes, ma'am.”

“Beam SG-15 and the Tok'ra to Bay Six and get a medical team to the bay,” she ordered.

“Done,” her second-in-command answered before relaying her orders to SG-15 to get the beacons attached to the Tok'ra.

She triggered a direct com to the other SG team that was outside of“SG-14, blow and bury that alt-gate.”

“Done, ma'am,” the leader of SG-14 stated over the com.

“Take the helm and notify me immediately if there's any activity at the site. As soon as SG-15 checks out, beam them back to help SG-14 patrol.”

“Understood, ma'am.”

~◊~

A sterile, sharp smell assaulted their sense of smell as Malek felt not only himself but also his host surface from the murky depths of unconsciousness to wakefulness. He immediately sensed that not was all well with his host's body, and pinpointed the source as the shoulder wound that he had received from the staff weapon. They had caught the edge of the blast as they had leapt towards the monolith. For a moment, his world had been filled with the glow of the monolith as soon as he had touched it, and then darkness enveloped both him and his host.

Now, it looked as if the wound had been partially repaired, but he could feel sluggishness and weakness tug at both of them. Next came the sensation of starchiness as he blinked and found himself staring around a metallic-looking room that was filled with the soft beeps of monitors and displays. The starchiness came from the medical clothing that he was current dressed in.

_**Malek, please remove the IV needle in our vein**_ **,** came the pleading whisper of his host as he looked down to see that there was indeed a needle stuck within the crook of their right elbow and that it was hurting slightly. An unbidden memory from his host when he had been young, quite young enough to not have yet lost his parents rose into his thoughts, and he immediately complied with his host's request. The IV in their vein was reminding his host too much of horrible memories.

As he took the needle out as carefully as possible before applying pressure on the point to stop the external blood flow while sending the necessary cellular markers to stop the internal portion, he send soothing thoughts towards his host. He could feel his host relax some more before grumbling as to how weak and tired they felt. He agreed with the assessment. They needed some real food.

As soon as the small needle wound was healed, he took off the clip that was stuck to the index finger of their right hand and immediately a few of the monitors that had been arrayed around the head of the medical bed he was lying on started to wildly beep. Annoyed by the noise, he reached over and yanked the entire power strip that fed the monitors out of its socket. With it quiet again, he gingerly slipped his legs out from under the rough blanket and sat up.

There was a pair of slippers on the ground and he pushed his feet into them before steadying himself by using the bed as a brace as he stood up. A brief bout of dizziness enveloped both his and his host, but it was gone as soon as it had come. Taking the starchy-looking robe that was folded up at the end of the medical bed, he slipped it on and shuffled to the nearest door. Surprisingly, it opened for him, but the room he stepped into was very unexpected.

A large and long window, spanning quite a few meters in his host's opinion, graced the place. He had seen such expanse before through Goa'uld motherships, but nothing like this – nothing so peaceful and unmarred by the galaxy-wide wars. He could only assume they were on a Tau'ri warship. Hunger momentarily forgotten, he took a few steps forward to have a closer look at the beautiful expanse of space that framed the hemisphere of the Tau'ri homeworld below. The blue-white orb with land mass of green and brown hung so silently and peacefully in the air, and even his host was speechless at the sight.

“Welcome home, Malek,” he heard a familiar voice say from behind him, and turned slightly to see Agent Gant approach from another section of the ship that led to this area. There was no one else around, but he was still on guard, for he did not like the expression that was on her face. “ _Or should I say, welcome home, Dr. Tereshkov_?”

He frowned – his host had automatically translated the words, but both of them had stiffened. She had spoken those words and his host's name in Russian; his host's native language. “I am unsure as to what you said, Agent Gant,” he began.

“It's all right,” she said, taking a step forward, but immediately retreated as Malek took a step back in response to her. “ _Only Daniel and I know who your host is and we will keep it that way_.”

He clasped his hands in front of him, doing his best to calm his host down by reminding him that they had worked with Gant for years and she was trustworthy to an extent. “How?” he asked. “How did you know?” It would have been so easy to deny that his host was a Tau'ri, but Gant was too intelligent and astute to see right through his deception.

“Daniel and I found out that the alt-gate you guys went through activates when there is the ATA-gene present in a user,” she explained. “Garshaw and your Council in general have denied that such a gene could survive during a blending. But I had my suspicions, so being that your host was the only one whom none of us knew where he was from, I did a little digging. I assumed that all ATA-gene carriers originated from Earth, since that was the evidence we have seen thus far in both this galaxy and in Pegasus. Using my contacts, I located you, and found out about your host's history with The Trust. They're dismantled and gone, by the way, but not wanting to cause a stir, I told Daniel my suspicions, since he's the expert in all things Ancient and had been trying to solve the issue of getting you guys back. We've kept it to ourselves and will continue to keep it to ourselves. _Both of us know what The Trust has done to people like your host, and how difficult it is to gain the confidence of anyone within the SGC because of what they did._ ”

He could feel his host calm down at the explanation, though he could still feel his agitation. “Thank you,” he said. “For telling me the truth, and allowing my host and I to come to terms with this ourselves.”

“We're just glad you, Anise, and Aldwin are back safe and sound,” she said. “Do you want to see them?”

“Yes, please,” he answered, feeling a little happier to hear that Aldwin had survived his grievous injuries. He had not been aware that Anise's injuries were also grave, but it heartening to hear that they had survived.

Following her through another set of doors on the far side of where he had entered from, he couldn't help but smile slightly as he saw Freya awake and up and about. She was in the midst of gently batting away the hand of a doctor who was trying to convince her to stop using the healing device on Aldwin and to tend to her own injuries. There were some cuts and scrapes that looked half-bandaged upon her face and bare arms that were not covered by the medical scrubs. It seemed that each of them had been given an isolated room to recover in, since there was only one occupied bed and several monitors in this particular room.

“Malek,” Freya greeted

“Freya,” he said, nodding and stopping before them. “I will take over if you wish to have your wounds looked at.”

She nodded, but as she released her hold upon the healing device and handed it to him, she asked, “May I stay and watch?”

It was not something that she usually asked, but given what they had all just been through, he knew why she asked. He himself was still slightly surprised that they had returned to their home dimension, even though a part of him longed to return to see what was happening in the other dimension. He glanced up at the doctor, who silently nodded and went to go fetch some cloth and antiseptic to work on Freya's wounds as she sat in the stool next to Aldwin's bed.

“For as long as you want, Freya,” he reassuringly stated.

 

~*~*~*~

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The epilogue and the end of this particular adventure for our three wayward Tok'ra is next!


	14. Chapter 14

**Epilogue**

 

“Dr. Jackson.”

Daniel turned around from where he had been aimlessly looking the rather geometric décor that surrounded the halls that led to the Tok'ra Council chamber. It had been a week since the return of the Tok'ra, but it was also the day in which he needed to return to the Tok'ra homeworld to escort the Tok'ra's two representatives. The SGC could have just allowed the Tok'ra to use their regular IDC to allow for travel to Earth, but with the recent Ori activities, along with just how important it was to keep this summit as secret and secure as possible, the IOA requested that specialized IDCs be created. These had a sub-space transmitter that would alert the _General Hammond_ when the non-Tau'ri representatives were retrieved. The IDC would trigger the teleport of the stargate to one of the two ships for security and secrecy purposes, before being beamed back to the SGC to resume normal operations.

That was not the only security protocol in place, but once they were off on their journey to Atlantis, the better he would feel. Of course, there would be members of the IOA on board and traveling with them, along with whomever the Free Jaffa sent, and the Tok'ra. He and Jack were the Tau'ri representatives, though technically, they answered to the IOA. The IOA members were only there to be informed real-time and make snap decisions on anything that needed to be offered or accepted. However, Daniel was a little skeptical that Jack would ever let the IOA overrule him.

Atlantis would host the meeting, with Dr. Weir and Dr.McKay negotiating on behalf of the Atlantis Expedition members. There were to be a few other representatives of other major powers, including the Genii. All in all, including the Asgardians, whom had already offered to bring the two Nox representatives with them, it was going to be a rather crowded summit.

“Anise,” he politely greeted. “I'm glad to see that you and your friends made it back here safely.”

She nodded, though to his surprise he saw her smile. He realized that all he remembered of her was either of a serious, studious expression or that of horror and grief that he had seen a little too many times – and that was not limited to her. She seemed a lot more relaxed and at ease than last he had seen her – as did a lot of the Tok'ra walking about in this city. There were still a cautious atmosphere around a lot of them, but overall, he could see that the end of a two-thousand year war brought them more peace than words could every convey. But now, they the Tau'ri, were asking all of them – all of their allies – go to back into war with them – to fight again, for if they could not find a solution and unite cohesively, then divided they would fall.

“Here are what we know about the Ataniks and their Furling forebearers,” she said, holding out an elegantly shaped hand that held a datapad. “I hope that this serves you well, Dr. Jackson.”

“Thank you,” he answered, taking the datapad. “I hope your recall of the information wasn't uncomfortable.”

“Thank you for the concern, but it was not,” she said, shaking her head slightly. “It will take more time and careful supervision for Aldwin and Asteria to recall further information that might help at the summit, which we will transmit to your commanders as soon as we can. But as of right now, the Council believes that most of the other information is more of what happened in that dimension's history that will not give us relevant information.”

“Ah,” he said, keeping his thoughts on his theory behind the naming of Leto and Asteria silent, along with the fact that he found it extremely odd that the Tok'ra Council had a say over the life of one of their own. In the years that he had been working with the Tok'ra, he had never heard of them dictating the comings and goings of any Tok'ra except for Tanith. However, that had been a subtle dictation and deliberate misdirection from the entire Tok'ra community. This... dictating the life of the Tok'ra who had single-handedly saved their entire species with the finding and rescue of a birthing queen... it was odd. But he knew better than to get involved, even though it did not sit well with him.

“Will you be staying long after the Council has decided who is to travel to this summit?” Anise suddenly asked.

“Uh,” he began, but fortunately for him, it seemed that something had distracted her. Unfortunately, he too, found himself momentarily frowning in concern as both of them saw Malek walk past them and into the Council chambers. Very few knew that today was the day that the Council would choose their representatives, and Malek was the second-to-last person that he thought the Council would choose as their representative.

Anise was one of those few to know, since she had to compile everything about the Ataniks, Furlings, and what she had found in the ruins and years of research to give to him and those who were going. “Surely the Council would not think to send him out again, not so soon...”

She trailed off as they both saw Garshaw exit the chambers, spotting the two of them, and headed towards them. “Councilor Garshaw,” Anise politely greeted as the Councilor stopped before them.

“Dr. Jackson, Anise,” Garshaw answered in kind, bowing her head slightly in greeting.

“Councilor,” he answered. “Are they still deciding?”

“In a way, yes,” the Councilor answered in a pleasant tone. “I was requested by the rest of the Council to recuse myself from this decision. It seems that they are under the impression that I am championing Malek to be my replacement upon the Council.”

“You're retiring?” he couldn't help but ask.

Garshaw gave a bark of laughter at both his question and the aghast look upon Anise's face that was directed at him. Daniel was not sure if his question had been either a little too blunt or something that was not asked in polite society. “No,” the Councilor stated, “I am not, at least not for another few decades. I find it amusing how human we are at times, when it comes to judgment. Malek is... how should I say it... reluctant to participate or engage in any sort of politics. I am quite surprised myself at how my compatriots cannot see that. However, I suppose that my defense of him and his actions taken after the death of Leto did not garner any support among my fellow Councilors.”

“But then why recuse yourself?” he asked, confused.

“I was the one who nominated him to be one of our representatives. Half of the Council agreed with me upon learning what he had done in this alternate-reality. The other half has called out for a balance to him. They have nominated Per'sus to be our other representative.”

He saw Anise turn her dismayed look upon Garshaw and heard her say, “With all due respect, Councilor, it is very well known that Malek and Per'sus do not get along. Are you sure this is a wise choice?”

“I never said it was a wise choice,” Garshaw answered with a mild look upon her face.

“Oh,” Daniel said after a moment it hit him like lightning. “Oh...” He shook his head slightly as he caught the Councilor's knowing look, though there was still a slightly confused look upon Anise's expression. “Councilor, I applaud your move,” he stated. He had little love for politics, but after Kinsey and his machinations, he had gotten a lot smarter in just how to navigate the so-called 'dredges of the political power' that the SGC and IOA wielded.

“Shall we wait?” Garshaw asked as if it were just another day in their lives and they were just having an everyday conversation.

Daniel nodded as they all took a seat on the benches that lined the hall, silently watching the comings and goings of Tok'ra. He saw a shift change of Sentinels arrive and depart, but surprisingly, the wait for the verdict and results of Garshaw's political ploy was not long. It spanned only a few minutes before they saw movement at the entrance to the Council chambers.

One of the Councilors popped his head out and beckoned to the two nearest Sentinels. As the Councilor asked the Sentinels for something and they left to carry out his request, he heard Garshaw say, “How odd. I though that it would be Malek who would be storming out. I had hoped that this request and rejection to work with Per'sus would grant him respite for a while from traveling to other worlds and to his duties. Who could they have chosen as the High Councilor's replacement?”

“Um, you don't have to stay out here with us, Councilor,” Daniel began.

“I was recused for the rest of this session, Dr. Jackson,” the Councilor answered. “I have no say, nor are they willing to tolerate my presence in there.”

They waited a few more minutes before it was Anise who first spotted the Sentinels returning. “Aldwin?” she half-whispered in dismay, as Daniel looked down the hall to see the two Sentinels escorting the Tok'ra between them.

Surprisingly, Aldwin looked their way, and either it was the combination of their presences outside of the chamber, or the fact that he most likely also knew of the Council's decision today, Daniel saw him halt where he was. The Sentinels on either side of him were quietly asking him to continue on towards the chambers, but he was stubbornly refusing to move and looked like he was about to turn back around. There was a hesitant look on his face, and Daniel was about to get up when he saw Garshaw stand up and walk to him.

Daniel could not hear what the Councilor was telling Aldwin, but it was not much and quite short. However, what was said seemed to be enough to convince the Tok'ra to continue onwards and into the chamber. He stood and approached Garshaw, hearing Anise also rise up behind him and follow with him.

There was expectant look upon Garshaw's expression as he heard her say, “I am very surprised at the Council's second choice, but I have to applaud their wisdom in their choice. What better representatives can we send than one who has fought against the system lords all his life, one who had defected and helped Egeria so long ago, and their hosts who are undoubtedly great agents of change for our society?”

Daniel kept silent as he saw both Malek and Aldwin emerge from the Council chambers a few moments later, followed by the rest of the Council. He would not dispute Garshaw's words, but he was beginning to worry. He and Gant were the only Tau'ri to know of Malek's host's identity, and from the talk around the Tok'ra homeworld, it seemed no other Tok'ra did. However, it was not his place to go about announcing Malek's host's identity.

The SGC was controlled by the military, but Atlantis... Atlantis was civilian through and through. While he was certain that The Trust was dismantled, that incident with Colonel Caldwell and the attempted infiltration by remnants of Trust forces in the second year of the expedition's settlement made him concerned. He was sure that considering Dr. Tereshkov's former research and development, there were sure to be at least one or two people on Atlantis who would recognize him, Tok'ra or not. It was not possible remnants of The Trust that made him uneasy – it was why after all of these years, was Malek's host was still hiding?

Better yet – what was Dr. Tereshkov hiding from?

 

~*~*~*~

 

FINI

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So ends the second installment in the adventures (or misadventures) of the Tok'ra. As of the end of this writing, I do not have a definitive start date for the third story in the series, as it will most definitely take place and crossover with Atlantis. That requires me to coordinate extensively with Shadow Chaser. Considering both of our writing schedules and real-life happenings, it is currently difficult to do so.
> 
> I thank you for all of your comments and kudos, and I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing this. See you on the other side of the wormhole!


End file.
